Short model description
AQUM is a limited area configuration of the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM), which uses the UKCA chemistry scheme (Savage et al., 2013). AQUM uses the RAQ (Regional Air Quality) chemistry scheme, which has 40 transported species (16 emitted) plus 18 non-advected species, and has 116 gas-phase reactions and 23 photolysis reactions. For aerosols, AQUM uses the CLASSIC scheme.
Operationally, AQUM runs at 12km resolution over a domain covering the UK and western Europe, producing a five day air quality forecast.
Model setup
AQUM version 8.3 was used, with the addition of new emissions branch to allow split between fire and anthropogenic emissions and the output of emission totals.
Model grid
The domain corresponds to the CORDEX-EU-44 domain with additional grid cells at the borders
- Rotated pole: lon = 198.0 , lat = 39.25
- startlon = 328.27
- startlat = -26.73
- dlon = 0.22
- dlat = 0.22
- nx = 238
- ny = 244
Emissions for 2010 simulation
Anthropogenic emissions
- From TNO/MACC for 2009
- Time variation:
- Day-of-week and monthly-variation taken into account when producing daily gridded emissions data.
- Hourly variation taken into account within model for gas-phase species to allow for longitudinal-based local time variations.
- NMVOC speciation (based on UK NAEI emissions speciation):
Species | HCHO | C2H4 | C3H6 | OXYL | TOLUEN | CH3CHO | C2H6 | C3H8 | C4H10 | ME2CO | CH3OH |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fraction | 0.0550 | 0.0784 | 0.0342 | 0.0241 | 0.0952 | 0.0153 | 0.1563 | 0.1090 | 0.2382 | 0.0784 | 0.1158 |
- Vertical profile:
- Aerosols:
- Area sources are emitted at the surface (20m)
- Point sources are emitted in level 6 (320m)
- Gas phase:
- Aerosols:
Height(m) | 0-34.8 | 34.8-72.8 | 72.8-123.6 | 123.6-186.9 | 186.9-263.0 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fraction | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.05 | 0.05 |
Biogenic emissions
- Hourly varying emissions from TNO, averaged to give daily gridded emissions. The model then applies diurnal cycle within its code.
Biomass burning emissions
- From FMI at 0.1$^\circ$ resolution
- Gas emission scaling (CO, NOx, NH3, SO2, NMVOC) and TPM set to PM following recommendations on wiki
- NMVOC mass emissions are 32% of total PM emissions and mapped onto the RAQ species with the following fractions (kg species / kg NMVOC):
Species | HCHO | C3H6 | CH3CHO | C2H6 | C3H8 | C4H10 | ME2CO | C5H8 | NO2 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fraction | 0.031323 | 0.79029 | 0.041314 | 0.021633 | 0.003801 | 0.115453 | 0.008713 | 0.007917 | 0.016586 |
- Vertical distribution of gas-phase emissions as follows (approximates recommendation of emitting 50% in lowest 200 m and 50% between 200 and 1000 m):
Height(m) | 0-34.8 | 34.8-72.8 | 72.8-123.6 | 123.6-186.9 | 186.9-263.0 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fraction | 0.0714133 | 0.1071470 | 0.1428800 | 0.1785600 | 0.0476190 |
Height(m) | 263.0-351.8 | 351.8-453.3 | 453.3-567.5 | 567.5-694.5 | 694.5-834.2 | 834.2-968.7 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Fraction | 0.0555595 | 0.0634881 | 0.0714286 | 0.0793690 | 0.0872976 | 0.0952381 |
- SO2 and NH3 emissions are inserted at level 6 (320m).
- PM emissions are spread 9.1625% into level 1 (20m), with the remainder spread equally into levels 2-11 (53.3-953m).
Boundary and initial conditions
Meteorological IC/BC
- Meteorological initial and boundary conditions are provided by running a Global, meteorology-only version of the MetUM at ~60km resolution, 70 vertical levels to 80km. Boundary conditions for the regional domain are output every 6 hours.
Chemical IC/BC
- Chemical/Aerosol LBCs are from the MACC reanalysis every 6 hours. The speciation into AQUM species are as follows:
MACC | MetUM |
---|---|
10% SO4 | Aitken mode SO4 |
90% SO4 | Accumulation mode SO4 |
SO2 | SO2 |
Dust Bin 1 | Split equally between Bins 1-3 |
Dust Bin 2 | Bin 3 |
60% Dust Bin 3 | Bin 4 |
30% Dust Bin 3 | Bin 5 |
10% Dust Bin 3 | Bin 6 |
BIGALK (=zero) | C3H8 |
CH2O | HCHO |
GO3 | O3 |
NO, NO2, C2H6, PAN, HNO3, CH4, CO | NO, NO2, C2H6, PAN, HNO3, CH4, CO |
Fresh OC, Aged OC | Fresh OC, Aged OC |
Fresh BC, Aged BC | Fresh BC, Aged BC |
References
- Savage N. H., Agnew P., Davis L. S., Ordóñez C., Thorpe R., Johnson C. E., O’Connor F. M. and Dalvi M. (2013), “Air quality modelling using the Met Office Unified Model (AQUM OS24-26): model description and initial evaluation”. Geosci. Model Dev.,Vol. 6, pp. 353-372, doi:10.5194/gmd-6-353-2013.