Chapter 53
Sensitivity of Atmospheric Composition
Mesoscale Simulations
in the Mediterranean
to the Meteorological Data and Chemical
Boundary Conditions
D. G. Amanatidis, S. Myriokefalitakis, Georgios Fanourgakis, N. Daskalakis
and M. Kanakidou
Abstract Limited area models applied at higher resolution than global models and
using datasets of higher resolution are generally expected to more accurately represent the spatiotemporal variability of key meteorological and climate parameters
such as near surface temperature, pressure, wind speed and atmospheric composition.
However, limited area models require boundary conditions and the accuracy of such
datasets reflects on the accuracy of the mesoscale simulations of atmospheric composition, in particular of the longer-lived species. The effects of various resolution
meteorological data and of different chemical boundary and initial conditions on the
simulated concentrations of the chemical gases and aerosols in the Mediterranean
have been here investigated. Two different simulations in three domains of progressively increasing horizontal resolution were performed for the year 2016 using the
mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model with
the chemistry module (WRF-Chem) and an additional one with different chemical boundary and initial conditions. Meteorology from the Global Forecast System
(GFS) at two different horizontal resolutions (1 × 1° and 0.25 × 0.25°) available
D. G. Amanatidis · G. Fanourgakis · M. Kanakidou (B)
Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete,
Voutes Campus, P.O.Box 2208, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
e-mail: mariak@uoc.gr
D. G. Amanatidis
e-mail: dimaman25@gmail.com
G. Fanourgakis
e-mail: fanourg@uoc.gr
S. Myriokefalitakis
IERSD, National Observatory of Athens, Lofos Koufou, Penteli, Greece
e-mail: steliosm@noa.gr
S. Myriokefalitakis · N. Daskalakis
LAMOS, Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
e-mail: daskalakis@uni-bremen.de
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_53
335
Sensitivity of Atmospheric Composition
Mesoscale Simulations
in the Mediterranean
to the Meteorological Data and Chemical
Boundary Conditions
D. G. Amanatidis, S. Myriokefalitakis, Georgios Fanourgakis, N. Daskalakis
and M. Kanakidou
Abstract Limited area models applied at higher resolution than global models and
using datasets of higher resolution are generally expected to more accurately represent the spatiotemporal variability of key meteorological and climate parameters
such as near surface temperature, pressure, wind speed and atmospheric composition.
However, limited area models require boundary conditions and the accuracy of such
datasets reflects on the accuracy of the mesoscale simulations of atmospheric composition, in particular of the longer-lived species. The effects of various resolution
meteorological data and of different chemical boundary and initial conditions on the
simulated concentrations of the chemical gases and aerosols in the Mediterranean
have been here investigated. Two different simulations in three domains of progressively increasing horizontal resolution were performed for the year 2016 using the
mesoscale Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) meteorological model with
the chemistry module (WRF-Chem) and an additional one with different chemical boundary and initial conditions. Meteorology from the Global Forecast System
(GFS) at two different horizontal resolutions (1 × 1° and 0.25 × 0.25°) available
D. G. Amanatidis · G. Fanourgakis · M. Kanakidou (B)
Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete,
Voutes Campus, P.O.Box 2208, 70013 Heraklion, Greece
e-mail: mariak@uoc.gr
D. G. Amanatidis
e-mail: dimaman25@gmail.com
G. Fanourgakis
e-mail: fanourg@uoc.gr
S. Myriokefalitakis
IERSD, National Observatory of Athens, Lofos Koufou, Penteli, Greece
e-mail: steliosm@noa.gr
S. Myriokefalitakis · N. Daskalakis
LAMOS, Institute of Environmental Physics (IUP), University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
e-mail: daskalakis@uni-bremen.de
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
C. Mensink et al. (eds.), Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXVI,
Springer Proceedings in Complexity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22055-6_53
335