Improvement of aerosol optical properties modeling over Eastern Asia with MODIS AOD assimilation in a global non-hydrostatic icosahedral aerosol transport model

Tie Dai; Nick A J Schutgens; Daisuke Goto; Guangyu Shi; Teruyuki Nakajima

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2014.06.021

Improvement of aerosol optical properties modeling over Eastern Asia with MODIS AOD assimilation in a global non-hydrostatic icosahedral aerosol transport model

Environ Pollut. 2014 Dec:195:319-29. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2014.06.021. Epub 2014 Jul 10.

Authors

Tie Dai¹, Nick A J Schutgens², Daisuke Goto³, Guangyu Shi⁴, Teruyuki Nakajima⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China; Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, China; Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan. Electronic address: daitie@mail.iap.ac.cn.
² Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Physics, University of Oxford, UK.
³ National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
⁵ Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan.

PMID: 25017412
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2014.06.021

Abstract

A new global aerosol assimilation system adopting a more complex icosahedral grid configuration is developed. Sensitivity tests for the assimilation system are performed utilizing satellite retrieved aerosol optical depth (AOD) from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and the results over Eastern Asia are analyzed. The assimilated results are validated through independent Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observations. Our results reveal that the ensemble and local patch sizes have little effect on the assimilation performance, whereas the ensemble perturbation method has the largest effect. Assimilation leads to significantly positive effect on the simulated AOD field, improving agreement with all of the 12 AERONET sites over the Eastern Asia based on both the correlation coefficient and the root mean square difference (assimilation efficiency). Meanwhile, better agreement of the Ångström Exponent (AE) field is achieved for 8 of the 12 sites due to the assimilation of AOD only.

Keywords: Aerosol assimilation; Aerosol optical properties; Eastern Asia; Non-hydrostatic icosahedral aerosol model.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aerosols / analysis*
Air Pollutants / analysis*
Air Pollution / statistics & numerical data
Asia
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Models, Chemical*
Satellite Imagery*

Substances

Aerosols
Air Pollutants