Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
6.3 Air Quality: Meteorology Interaction Processes
in the ICLAMS Modeling System
G. Kallos, S. Solomos, and J. Kushta
University of Athens, School of Physics,
Atmospheric Modeling and Weather Forecasting Group, 15784 Athens, Greece
Abstract
In order to study processes and feedbacks between air pollution and
climate a new Integrated Community Limited Area Modeling System - ICLAMS
has been developed. ICLAMS is an enhanced version of the Regional Atmospheric
Modeling SystemRAMS.6.0. It includes submodels for the dust and sea salt cycles,
gas and aqueous phase chemistry and gas to particle conversion. All these processes
are directly coupled with meteorology. The system has been developed to study air
pollution transport and transformation processes in the Greater Euro-Mediterranean
Region and East Atlantic. This area is well known for its regional characteristics
where the mixture of different age of anthropogenic air pollutants with Saharan dust
and sea salt may lead to the formation of new particles with different characteristics.
In this presentation, we demonstrate the transport and transformation processes
at various spatiotemporal scales and discuss implications related to aerosol com-
position and their impacts on cloud formation and on radiation. The new modeling
tool is applied in studies related to air quality and climate in the Mediterranean,
North Africa and Atlantic Ocean.
1. Introduction
Natural-born and anthropogenic aerosols have profound impacts on the
thermodynamic and radiative energy budgets of the Earth [1] and also on human
health [2]. Desert dust and sea-salt spray are considered to be the main com-
ponents of natural-born aerosol. Anthropogenic pollutants consist mainly of
black carbon, sulphates, nitrates, ozone and carbon oxides. Continuous research
on aerosol emission and removal mechanisms as well as on their contribution to
atmospheric procedures is essential for weather and climate. Aerosols change the
optical properties of the atmosphere and redistribute the radiation fluxes between
earth and sun (direct aerosol effect). They can also serve as efficient Cloud Con-
densation Nuclei (CCN) and Ice Nuclei (IN) thus changing the microphysical
and radiative properties of the clouds (indirect aerosol effect). The above effects
of aerosol in regional and local weather cannot be easily resolved by the available
modeling tools. However, the ability to forecast severe weather phenomena such
