Physico‐chemical modeling of the First Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE 1) Lagrangian B: 1. A moving column approach

Abstract

During Lagrangian experiment B (LB in the following) of the First Aerosol Characterization Experiment (ACE 1), a clean maritime air mass was followed over a period of 28 hours. During that time span, the vertical distribution of aerosols and their gas phase precursors were characterized by a total of nine aircraft soundings which were performed during three research flights that followed the trajectory of a set of marked tetroons. The objective of this paper is to study the time evolution of gas phase photochemistry in this Lagrangian framework. A box model approach to the wind shear driven and vertically stratified boundary layer is questionable, since its basic assumption of instantaneous turbulent mixing of the entire air column is not satisfied here. To overcome this obstacle, a one‐dimensional Lagrangian boundary layer meteorological model with coupled gas phase photochemistry is used. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such a model is applied to a Lagrangian experiment and that enough measurements are available to fully constrain the simulations. A major part of this paper is devoted to the question of to what degree our model is able to reproduce the time evolution and the vertical distribution of the observed species. Comparison with observations of O3, OH, H2O2, CH3OOH, DMS, and CH3I, made on the nine Lagrangian aircraft soundings shows that this is in general the case, although the dynamical simulation started to deviate from the observations on the last Lagrangian flight. In agreement with experimental findings reported by Q. Wang et al. (unpublished manuscript, 1998b), generation of turbulence in the model appears to be most sensitive to the imposed sea surface temperature. Concerning the different modeled and observed chemical species, a number of conclusions are drawn: (1) Ozone, having a relatively long photochemical lifetime in the clean marine boundary layer, is found to be controlled by vertical transport processes, in particular synoptic‐scale subsidence or ascent. (2) Starting with initally constant vertical profiles, the model is able to “create” qualitatively the vertical structure of the observed peroxides. (3) OH concentrations are in agreement with observations, both on cloudy and noncloudy days. On the first flight, a layer of dry ozone rich air topped the boundary layer. The model predicts a minimum in OH and peroxides at that altitude consistent with observations. (4) Atmospheric DMS concentrations are modeled correctly only when using the Liss and Merlivat [1986] flux parameterization, the Wanninkhof [1992] flux parameterization giving values twice those observed. To arrive at this conclusion, OH is assumed to be the major DMS oxidant, but no assumptions about mixing heights or entrainment rates are necessary in this type of model. DMS seawater concentrations are constrained by observations.