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We investigate regional sources contributing to CO during the Korea United States Air Quality (KORUS-AQ) campaign conducted over Korea (1 May to 10 June 2016) using 17 tagged CO simulations from the Community Atmosphere Model with chemistry (CAM-chem). The simulations use three spatial resolutions, three anthropogenic emission inventories, two meteorological fields, and nine emission scenarios. These simulations are evaluated against measurements from the DC-8 aircraft and Measurements Of Pollution In The Troposphere (MOPITT). Results show that simulations using bottom-up emissions are consistently lower (bias: −34 to −39%) and poorer performing (Taylor skill: 0.38–0.61) than simulations using alternative anthropogenic emissions (bias: −6 to −33%; Taylor skill: 0.48–0.86), particularly for enhanced Asian CO and volatile organic compound (VOC) emission scenarios, suggesting underestimation in modeled CO background and emissions in the region. The ranges of source contributions to modeled CO along DC-8 aircraft from Korea and southern (90°E to 123°E, 20°N to 29°N), middle (90°E to 123°E, 29°N to 38.5°N), and northern (90°E to 131.5°E, 38.5°N to 45°N) East Asia (EA) are 6–13%, ~5%, 16–28%, and 9–18%, respectively. CO emissions from middle and northern EA can reach Korea via transport within the boundary layer, whereas those from southern EA are transported to Korea mainly through the free troposphere. Emission contributions from middle EA dominate during continental outflow events (29–51%), while Korean emissions play an overall more important role for ground sites (up to 25–49%) and plumes within the boundary layer (up to 25–44%) in Korea. Finally, comparisons with four other source contribution approaches (FLEXPART 9.1 back trajectory calculations driven by Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) WRF inert tracer, China signature VOCs, and CO to CO2 enhancement ratios) show general consistency with CAM-chem.

An air quality model ensemble is used to represent the current state-of-the-art in atmospheric modeling, composed of two global forecasts and two regional simulations. The model ensemble assessment focuses on both carbonaceous aerosols, i.e. black carbon (BC) and organic aerosol (OA), and five trace gases during two aircraft campaigns of the EMeRGe (Effect of Megacities on the Transport and Transformation of Pollutants on the Regional to Global Scales) project. These campaigns, designed with similar flight plans for Europe and Asia, along with identical instrumentation, provide a unique opportunity to evaluate air quality models with a specific focus on city plumes. The observed concentration ranges for all pollutants are reproduced by the ensemble in the various environments sampled during the EMeRGe campaigns. The evaluation of the air quality model ensemble reveals differences between the two campaigns, with carbon monoxide (CO) better reproduced in East Asia, while other studied pollutants exhibit a better agreement in Europe. These differences may be associated to the modeling of biomass burning pollution during the EMeRGe Asian campaign. However, the modeled CO generally demonstrates good agreement with observations with a correlation coefficient (R) of ≈ 0.8. For formaldehyde (HCHO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3) and BC the agreement is moderate (with R ranging from 0.5 to 0.7), while for OA and SO2 the agreement is weak (with R ranging from 0.2 to 0.3). The modeled wind speed shows very good agreement (R ≈ 0.9). This supports the use of modeled pollutant transport to identify flight legs associated with pollution originating from major population centers targeted among different flight plans. City plumes are identified using a methodology based on numerical tracer experiments, where tracers are emitted from city centers. This approach robustly localizes the different city plumes in both time and space, even after traveling several hundred kilometers. Focusing on city plumes, the fractions of high concentration are overestimated for BC, OA, HCHO, and SO2, which degrades the performance of the ensemble. This assessment of air quality models with collocated airborne measurements provides a clear insight into the existing limitations in modeling the composition of carbonaceous aerosols and trace gases, especially in city plumes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concentration of carbonaceous aerosols, black carbon (BC) and organic aerosol (OA), in the atmosphere is related to co-emitted or co-produced trace gases. In this study, we investigate the most relevant proportional relationships between both BC and OA with the following trace gases: carbon monoxide (CO), formaldehyde (HCHO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ozone (O3), and sulfur dioxide (SO2). One motivation for selecting these trace gases is that they can be observed using remote sensing measurements from satellite instrumentation, and could therefore be used to predict spatial changes in the amounts of BC and OA. Airborne measurements are optimal for the analysis of both the composition of aerosols and trace gases in different environments ranging from unpolluted oceanic air masses to those in heavily polluted city plumes. The two aircraft campaigns of the EMeRGe (Effect of Megacities on the Transport and Transformation of Pollutants on the Regional to Global Scales) project have created a unique database, with flight plans dedicated to studying city plumes in two regions, Europe (2017) and East Asia (2018), along with identical instrumental payload. Using linear regression analysis, three relevant relationships between carbonaceous aerosol and trace gases are identified: - The BC/OA ratio observed in the Asian campaign is three times higher (≈ 0.3) than in the European campaign (≈ 0.1), whereas the Pearson correlation coefficient (R) between BC and OA is much higher in Europe (R ≈ 0.8) than in Asia (R ≈ 0.6). - The CO/BC ratio is also observed higher in the Asian campaign (≈ 240) than in the European campaign (≈ 170), whereas the R-value between CO and BC is similar for both campaigns (R ≈ 0.7). - The HCHO/OA ratio is similar in both campaigns (≈0.32), but the observed R-values between HCHO and OA is higher in Europe than in the Asia (R ≈ 0.7 compared to ≈ 0.3). By focusing on heavily polluted air masses sampled downwind in the city plumes, the ratios between the observed carbonaceous aerosols and the five trace gases change, and the R-values increase with O3 for both BC and OA (R ≈ 0.5). To assess the performance of atmospheric models with respect to the most relevant observed relationships, an air quality model ensemble is used to represent the current state of atmospheric modeling, consisting of two global and two regional simulations. The evaluation shows that these proportional relationships are not satisfactorily reproduced by the model ensemble. The relationships between BC and OA or between CO and BC are modeled with stronger correlations than the observed ones, and their higher ratios observed in Asia compared to Europe are not reproduced. Furthermore, the modeled HCHO/OA ratio is underestimated in the Asian campaign and overestimated in the European campaign. This analysis of the proportional relationships between carbonaceous aerosols and trace gases implies that the observed relationships can be used to constrain models and improve anthropogenic emission inventories. In addition, it implies that information about the lower tropospheric concentration of carbonaceous aerosols can potentially be inferred from satellite retrievals of trace gases, particularly in the plumes from megacities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the association of marine biological indicators (polysaccharides, protein-like gel particles, and chl a) with the formation of fluorescent aerosol particles, cloud condensation nuclei (CCNs), and ice-nucleating particles (INPs) over the North Pacific Ocean, Bering Sea, and Arctic Ocean during September–November 2019. The abundance of bioindicators was high in the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea (e.g., up to 1.3 mgm-3 of chl a), suggesting high biological activity due to a phytoplankton bloom. In the North Pacific Ocean, particles were characterized by high mass fractions of organics and sulfate with a predominance of terrestrial air masses. Conversely, in the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean, particles were characterized by high mass fractions of sea salt and sulfate with a predominance of maritime air masses. The averaged range/value of the CCN concentration at 0.4 % supersaturation were 99–151, 43–139, and 36 cm-3 over the North Pacific Ocean with terrestrial influences, over the Bering Sea with marine biogenic influences, and over the Arctic Ocean with marine influences, respectively, and the corresponding range/value of the hygroscopicity parameter κ were 0.17–0.59, 0.42–0.68, and 0.66, respectively. The averaged INP concentration (NINP) measured at temperatures of - 18 and - 24 ∘C with marine sources in the North Pacific and Bering Sea was 0.01–0.09 and 0.1–2.5 L-1 , respectively, and that over the Arctic Ocean was 0.001–0.016 and 0.012–0.27 L-1 , respectively. When marine sources were dominant, fluorescent bioaerosols in the fine mode were strongly correlated with all bioindicator types (R : 0.81–0.88) when the effect of wind-induced uplift from the sea surface to the atmosphere was considered. Correlations between NINP measured at - 18 and - 24 ∘C and all bioindicator types (R : 0.58–0.95 and 0.79–0.93, respectively) were positive, even when the extreme outlier point was omitted, as were those between NINP and fluorescent bioaerosols (R : 0.50 and 0.60, respectively), suggesting that marine bioindicators contributed substantially as sources of bioaerosols and to cloud formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forest wildfires in interior Alaska represent an important black carbon (BC) source for the Arctic and sub-Arctic. However, BC observations in interior Alaska have not been sufficient to constrain the range of existing emissions. Here, we show our observations of BC mass concentrations and carbon monoxide (CO) mixing ratios in the Poker Flat Research Range (65.12° N, 147.43° W), located in central Alaska, since April 2016. The medians of the hourly BC mass concentration and CO mixing ratio throughout the observation period were 13 ng m-3 and 124.7 ppb, respectively. Significant peaks in the BC mass concentration and CO mixing ratio were observed at the same time, indicating influences from common sources. These BC peaks coincided with peaks at other comparative sites in Alaska, indicating large BC emissions in interior Alaska. Source estimation by FLEXPART-WRF confirmed a contribution of forest wildfires in Alaska when high BC mass concentrations were observed. For these cases, we found a positive correlation (r = 0.44) between the observed BC/∆CO ratio and fire radiative power (FRP) observed in Alaska and Canada. This finding indicates that the BC and CO emission ratio is controlled by the intensity and time progress of forest wildfires and suggests the BC emission factor or/and inventory could be potentially improved by FRP. We recommend that FRP be integrated into future bottom-up emission inventories to achieve a better understanding of the dynamics of pollutants from frequently occurred forest wildfires under the rapidly changing climate in the Arctic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trace metals in aerosol particles impact ocean biogeochemistry. Therefore, semi-continuous measurements of the elemental composition of fine mode (PM2.5) aerosols were conducted using an automated X-ray fluorescence analyzer on a remote island of Japan during the spring of 2018. The temporal variations of mass concentrations of geochemically important elements for this period, such as S, Pb, Cu, Si, and Fe, and their relationships with emission tracers carbon monoxide (CO) and black carbon (BC), were reported. The Integrated Massively Parallel Atmospheric Chemical Transport (IMPACT) model was used to evaluate the source apportionment of these components and was evaluated in terms of emissions and wet removal processes. Pb and Cu were found to have originated mainly from anthropogenic sources (98 % and 93 % on average, respectively) over the East Asian continent. A positive correlation of Pb and Cu with BC and CO was found during the study period, indicating that the emission sources of these metals share the region where the large CO (and BC) emission sources are located. The air masses with minimized impacts of the wet removal during the transport were extracted to elucidate the emission ratio of Pb and Cu to CO, which were, for the first time, evaluated as 152.7 and 63.1 µg g-1, respectively, during the spring of 2018 in the East Asian outflow. The analysis of the tagged tracer simulations by the IMPACT model confirmed that BC and Si can be used as tracers for anthropogenic and dust emissions, respectively, during the observation period. The source apportionment of Fe and Mn in PM2.5 aerosols was conducted using Si and BC tracers, which revealed that the anthropogenic contribution was 17 % and 44 % on average, respectively. Based on the air mass origins of Fe and Mn, their anthropogenic fraction varied from 2 % to 29 % and 9 % to 68 %, respectively, during the high PM2.5 concentration periods. However, despite minor anthropogenic contributions of Fe, they can adversely affect human health and ocean biogeochemistry owing to their higher water solubility. The modeled BC, Pb, Cu, and Fe were evaluated by separately diagnosing their emission and transport. Ratios of modeled to observed concentrations for these components were analyzed in terms of the accumulated precipitation along the transport from the East Asian continent. The current model simulations were found to overestimate the emissions (based on Community Emissions Data System, CEDS v2021-02-05) of BC by 44 % and underestimate Cu by 45 %, anthropogenic Fe by 28 % in East Asia, and the wet deposition rates for BC and Pb. Overall, Cu in East Asia exhibited a different nature from BC and Pb in terms of emission sources and wet removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We introduce the new Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) daily and monthly level-3 product of total column ozone (O 3), total and tropospheric column nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), total column water vapour, total column bromine oxide (BrO), total column formaldehyde (HCHO), and total column sulfur dioxide (SO 2) (daily products 10.15770/EUM_SAF_AC_0048, ; monthly products 10.15770/EUM_SAF_AC_0049,). The GOME-2 level-3 products aim to provide easily translatable and user-friendly data sets to the scientific community for scientific progress as well as to satisfy public interest. The purpose of this paper is to present the theoretical basis as well as the verification and validation of the GOME-2 daily and monthly level-3 products. The GOME-2 level-3 products are produced using the overlapping area-weighting method. Details of the gridding algorithm are presented. The spatial resolution of the GOME-2 level-3 products is selected based on the sensitivity study. The consistency of the resulting level-3 products among three GOME-2 sensors is investigated through time series of global averages, zonal averages, and bias. The accuracy of the products is validated by comparison to ground-based observations. The verification and validation results show that the GOME-2 level-3 products are consistent with the level-2 data. Small discrepancies are found among three GOME-2 sensors, which are mainly caused by the differences in the instrument characteristic and level-2 processor. The comparison of GOME-2 level-3 products to ground-based observations in general shows very good agreement, indicating that the products are consistent and fulfil the requirements to serve the scientific community and general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]