Atmospheric methane emissions for Argentina: comparison with TROPOMI satellite measurements

Methane emissions have very important effect on global radiative forcing. Therefore, reducing these emissions has been proposed as an effective short-term strategy to mitigate global warming, in parallel with reductions in long-lived carbon dioxide (CO2) for long- term temperature stabilizations. In this context, Argentina emits 3645 Gg of CH4 mainly from livestock production, biomass burning and natural gas production. Since 2018, TROPOMI instruments provide global coverage on methane column-average mole fraction of dry air (XCH4), and height profiles of methane concentrations. We compare two available methane inventory: a national (a high resolution of own ellaboration: GEAA) and an international (EDGAR) emissions database with TROPOMI measurements. By performing inverse satellite retrieval we evaluate the ability of remote sensing information to detect possible hotspot methane emissions and compare these results with the two inventories. From these analyzes, we observe that the latitudinal averages of the continental sector increase at a rate of 10 ppb/degree, from south to north, while the maritime sector remains constant. From a temporary perspective, the average monthly concentration amplitude range varies 40 to 50 ppb, with minimum values in March and maximum values in September.Fil: Puliafito, Salvador Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Berná Peña, Lucas Luciano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Pascual Flores, Romina María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Bolaño Ortiz, Tomas Rafael. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaIEEE Latin American GRSS & ISPRS Remote Sensing ConferenceSantiagoChileInternational Society for Photogrametry and Remote SensingInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer

Evaluation of CAM-CHEM VSL model performance during Southtrac campaign

In the framework of the SouthTRAC Campaign (Transport and Composition of the Southern Hemisphere Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere) based on Rio Grande, Argentina, a local research group from CONICET (Argentine National Research Council) joined the German consortium maintaining the HALO research aircraft (High-Altitude and LOng-range aircraft) to help with the flight planning and evaluation of the chemical composition of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere within the ozone hole periphery. The SouthTRAC aircraft campaign was carried out in two phases which took place in September and November 2019, respectively. With the purpose of providing additional information of the atmospheric composition of brominated Very Short-Lived (VSLBr) species and compare with HALO observations during the transfer and campaign flights, a CAM-Chem (Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry) global chemistry-climate simulation was conducted. The model setup used in the halogenated CAM-Chem simulation had a 1° x 1.25° lat-lon resolution, 56 hybrid vertical levels from the surface to the middle stratosphere and considered assimilated meteorology from MERRA, including an explicit treatment of VSLBr sources and chemistry. Model output of VSLBr, long-lived bromine and chlorine (LLBr and LLCl) species and ozone mixing ratios, as well as the main inorganic halogen reactive and reservoir species and gas/heterogeneous phase reaction rates affecting lowermost stratospheric ozone were analyzed in horizontal domains and vertical cross-sections across each flightpath. The model performance with respect to the HALO observations has a general good agreement, presenting better results for mid latitudes (between 30º S and 50º S) than for southern latitudes (>50º S). In particular, CAM-Chem timeseries consistently reproduced the spatio-temporal variation of the main VSLBr species (CH2Br2 and CHBr3), including the sharp variations observed across the tropopause. For both VSLBr as well as for LLCl compounds such as CFC-12, the Pearson correlation coefficient r obtained during each of the flights ranged between 0.7 and 0.9, while the Normalized Mean Bias (NMB) was smaller than 8% for almost every flight. Regarding LLBr CH3Br, the correlation with the aircraft observations is high (r>0.9) but the inter-hemispheric variability during transfer flights is not fully captured. For Ozone, the model presents mid to high correlation with respect to measures (0.5Fil: Berná Peña, Lucas Luciano. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Puliafito, Salvador Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Barreras, Javier Marcelo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Engel, Andreas. Goethe Universitat Frankfurt; AlemaniaFil: Jesswein, Markus. Goethe Universitat Frankfurt; AlemaniaFil: Cuevas, Carlos A.. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; EspañaFil: Saiz Lopez, Alfonso. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; EspañaFil: Fernandez, Rafael Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas. - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaEGU General Assembly 2021AustriaEuropean Geosciences Unio

Assessment of absorbing aerosols on austral spring snow albedo reduction by several basins in the Central Andes of Chile from daily satellite observations (2000–2016) and a case study with the WRF-Chem model

Changes in snow albedo (SA) on the Limari, Choapá, Aconcagua and Maipo basins of the Central Andes of Chile (CAC) are associated with the possible deposition of light-absorbing particles in the austral spring. We correlate SA with daily data of snow cover, aerosol optical depth (AOD) and land surface temperature (LST) available from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the NASA Terra satellite between 2000 and 2016, and other derived parameters such as days after albedo (DAS) and snow precipitation (SP). We used satellite pixels with 100% snow cover to obtain monthly average value of SA, LST, AOD, DAS and SP from September to November performing multiple regression analysis. We show that in Maipo, after considering LST, AOD represents an important role in changes induced to SA. The multiple regression model illustrates that AOD increases can reduce the SA during spring months by 13.59, 0.01, 0.77 and 3.8% in Limari, Choapá, Aconcagua and Maipo, respectively. In addition, we used a numerical prediction Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem), showing that the black carbon distribution and average daily AOD are associated with the SA decrease of 0.15 in the Maipo basin between September 29 and 30, 2016. The WRF-Chem output showed aerosols are transported mainly with dominating westerly winds to the Limari and Maipo basins. Our results further suggest that SA decrease due to AOD may be originated in the largest industrial and urban areas in Chile, producing a negative impact on the hydrological resource, generated in the CAC.Fil: Bolaño Ortiz, Tomas Rafael. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Pascual Flores, Romina María. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Ruggeri, María Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria; ChileFil: Lakkis, Susan Gabriela. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez, Rafael Pedro. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Puliafito, Salvador Enrique. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentin

High resolution seasonal and decadal inventory of anthropic gas-phase and particle emissions for Argentina

This work presents the integration of a gas-phase and particulate atmospheric emission inventory (AEI) for Argentina in high spatial resolution (0.025° × 0.025°; approx. 2.5 km × 2.5 km) considering monthly variability from 1995 to 2020. The new inventory, called GEAA-AEIv3.0M, includes the following activities: energy production, fugitive emissions from oil and gas production, industrial fuel consumption and production, transport -road, maritime and air-, agriculture, livestock production, manufacturing, residential, commercial and biomass + agricultural-waste burning. The following species, grouped by atmospheric reactivity, are considered: i) Greenhouse Gases (GHG): CO2, CH4 and N2O; ii) Ozone Precursors: CO, NOx (NO + NO2) and Non-Methane Volatile Organic Compounds (NMVOC); iii) Acidifying Gases: NH3 and SO2; and iv) Particulate Matter (PM): PM10, PM2.5, Total Suspended Particle (TSP) and Black-Carbon (BC). The main objective of the GEAA-AEIv3.0M high-resolution emission inventory is to provide temporal resolved emission maps to support air quality and climate modeling oriented to evaluate pollutant mitigation strategies by local governments. This is of major concern especially in countries where air quality monitoring networks are scarce, and the development of regional and seasonal emissions inventories would result in remarkable improvements in the time + space chemical prediction achieved by air quality models. Despite distinguishing among different sectoral and activity databases as well as introducing a novel spatial distribution approach based on census radii, our high-resolution GEAA-AEIv3.0M show equivalent national-wide total emissions compared to the Third National Communication of Argentina (TNCA), which compiles annual GHG emissions from 1990 through 2014 (agreement within ±4 %). However, the GEAA-AEIv3.0M includes acidifying gases and PM species not considered in TNCA. Spatial and temporal comparisons were also performed against EDGAR HTAPv5.0 inventory for several pollutants. The agreement was acceptable within less than 30 % for most of the pollutants and activities, although a > 90 % discrepancy was obtained for methane from fuel production and fugitive emissions and > 120 % for biomass burning. Finally, the updated seasonal series clearly showed the pollution reduction due to the COVID-19 lockdown during the first quarter of year 2020 with respect to same months in previous years. Through an open access data repository, we present the GEAA-AEIv3.0M inventory, as the largest and more detailed spatial resolution dataset for the Argentine Republic, which includes monthly gridded emissions for 12 species and 15 sectors between 1995 and 2020. The datasets are available at http://dx.doi.org/10.17632/d6xrhpmzdp.1, under a CC-BY 4 license (Puliafito et al., 2021).Fil: Puliafito, Enrique. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Bolaño Ortiz, Tomás Rafael. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez, Rafael Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas. - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Berná Peña, Lucas Luciano. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Pascual Flores, Romina María. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Urquiza, Josefina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Tames, María Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentin

High-resolution seasonal and decadal inventory of anthropogenic gas-phase and particle emissions for Argentina

This work presents the integration of a gas-phase and particulate atmospheric emission inventory (AEI) for Argentina in high spatial resolution (0.025×0.025; approx. 2.5km×2.5 km) considering monthly variability from 1995 to 2020. The new inventory, called GEAA-AEIv3.0M, includes the following activities: Energy production, fugitive emissions from oil and gas production, industrial fuel consumption and production, transport (road, maritime, and air), agriculture, livestock production, manufacturing, residential, commercial, and biomass and agricultural waste burning. The following species, grouped by atmospheric reactivity, are considered: (i) greenhouse gases (GHGs)-CO2, CH4, and N2O; (ii) ozone precursors-CO, NOx (NO+NO2), and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs); (iii) acidifying gases-NH3 and SO2; and (iv) particulate matter (PM)-PM10, PM2.5, total suspended particles (TSPs), and black carbon (BC). The main objective of the GEAA-AEIv3.0M high-resolution emission inventory is to provide temporally resolved emission maps to support air quality and climate modeling oriented to evaluate pollutant mitigation strategies by local governments. This is of major concern, especially in countries where air quality monitoring networks are scarce, and the development of regional and seasonal emissions inventories would result in remarkable improvements in the time and space chemical prediction achieved by air quality models. Despite distinguishing among different sectoral and activity databases as well as introducing a novel spatial distribution approach based on census radii, our high-resolution GEAA-AEIv3.0M shows equivalent national-wide total emissions compared to the Third National Communication of Argentina (TNCA), which compiles annual GHG emissions from 1990 through 2014 (agreement within ±7.5%). However, the GEAA-AEIv3.0M includes acidifying gases and PM species not considered in TNCA. Temporal comparisons were also performed against two international databases: Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) and EDGAR HTAPv5.0 for several pollutants; for EDGAR it also includes a spatial comparison. The agreement was acceptable within less than 30% for most of the pollutants and activities, although a >90% discrepancy was obtained for methane from fuel production and fugitive emissions and >120% for biomass burning. Finally, the updated seasonal series clearly showed the pollution reduction due to the COVID-19 lockdown during the first quarter of year 2020 with respect to same months in previous years. Through an open-access data repository, we present the GEAA-AEIv3.0M inventory as the largest and more detailed spatial resolution dataset for the Argentine Republic, which includes monthly gridded emissions for 12 species and 15 stors between 1995 and 2020.Fil: Puliafito, Salvador Enrique. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bolanõ Ortiz, Tomás R.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María; ChileFil: Fernandez, Rafael Pedro. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Berná, Lucas L.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Ministerio de Ciencia. Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica; ArgentinaFil: Pascual Flores, Romina María. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; ArgentinaFil: Urquiza, Josefina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; ArgentinaFil: Tames, María Florencia. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentin

Chemical interactions between ship-originated air pollutants and ocean-emitted halogens

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MOcean-going ships supply products from one region to another and contribute to the world's economy. Ship exhaust contains many air pollutants and results in significant changes in marine atmospheric composition. The role of reactive halogen species (RHS) in the troposphere has received increasing recognition and oceans are the largest contributors to their atmospheric burden. However, the impact of shipping emissions on RHS and that of RHS on ship-originated air pollutants have not been studied in detail. Here, an updated Weather Research Forecasting coupled with Chemistry model is utilized to explore the chemical interactions between ship emissions and oceanic RHS over the East Asia seas in summer. The emissions and resulting chemical transformations from shipping activities increase the level of NO and NO at the surface, increase O in the South China Sea, but decrease O in the East China Sea. Such changes in pollutants result in remarkable changes in the levels of RHS (>200% increase of chlorine; ∼30% and ∼5% decrease of bromine and iodine, respectively) as well as in their partitioning. The abundant RHS, in turn, reshape the loadings of air pollutants (∼20% decrease of NO and NO; ∼15% decrease of O) and those of the oxidants (>10% reduction of OH and HO; ∼40% decrease of NO) with marked patterns along the ship tracks. We, therefore, suggest that these important chemical interactions of ship-originated emissions with RHS should be considered in the environmental policy assessments of the role of shipping emissions in air quality and climate

Análisis de los aerosoles absorbentes generados por quema de biomasa y su relación con la reducción de albedo en nieve en la Cuenca del Maipo (Chile): Estudio de caso usando el modelo WRF- Chem

La nieve y glaciares en la cuenca alta del Rio Maipo en Chile, son un significativo reservorio y fuente de agua para más de 7 millones de personas en la región metropolitana de Santiago. Varios estudios muestran que el albedo en nieve está disminuyendo en los Andes Centrales, debido principalmente al oscurecimiento de las superficies níveas ocasionado por cambios físicos, y por la deposición de partículas absorbentes de la luz (LAP, por su sigla en inglés). Uno de los efectos inmediatos de este oscurecimiento de la nieve (SDE, por sus siglas en inglés) es su derretimiento más rápido, lo que significaría una menor cantidad de agua disponible posteriormente. Investigaciones realizadas en el área de estudio sugieren que una importante fuente de LAP en la zona son las quemas a cielo abierto. Para analizar los efectos de estas quemas en la criósfera de la cuenca, se desarrolló una metodología que articula un análisis espacio-temporal de albedo en nieve con imágenes MODIS durante 17 años para la primavera austral, con la simulación de la dispersión de LAP usando el modelo WRF-Chem y el inventario de quemas de alta resolución espacial Fire INventory from NCAR (FINN). Los resultados muestran que las LAP están llegando a la nieve de esta cuenca y se relacionan con variaciones negativas de albedo promedio diario de hasta el 27%, observadas en las imágenes satélites MODIS para los días analizados, situación que está impactando los recursos hídricos disponibles en la cuenca Maipo.Fil: Bolaño Ortiz, Tomas Rafael. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Ruggeri, María Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria; ChileFil: Pascual Flores, Romina María. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lakkis, Susan Gabriela. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina "Santa María de los Buenos Aires". Secretaría Académica. Dirección de Investigaciones. Equipo Estudios de Procesos Atmosféricos en el Cambio Global; ArgentinaFil: Puliafito, Salvador Enrique. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaReunión anual de la Sociedad Chilena de la CriósferaLa SerenaChileCentro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Árida

Spread of COVID-19, Meteorological Conditions and Air Quality in the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina: Two Facets Observed during Its Pandemic Lockdown

This work studied the spread of COVID-19, the meteorological conditions and the air quality in a megacity from two viewpoints: (1) the correlation between meteorological and air quality (PM10 and NO2) variables with infections and deaths due COVID-19, and (2) the improvement in air quality. Both analyses were performed for the pandemic lockdown due to COVID-19 in the City of Buenos Aires (CABA), the capital and the largest city in Argentina. Daily data from temperature, rainfall, average relative humidity, wind speed, PM10, NO2, new cases and deaths due COVID-19 were analyzed. Our findings showed a significant correlation of meteorological and air quality variables with COVID-19 cases. The highest temperature correlation occurred before the confirmation day of new cases. PM10 presented the highest correlation within 13 to 15 days lag, while NO2 within 3 to 6 days lag. Also, reductions in PM10 and NO2 were observed. This study shows that exposure to air pollution was significantly correlated with an increased risk of becoming infected and dying due to COVID-19. Thus, these results show that the NO2 and PM10 levels in CABA can serve as one of the indicators to assess vulnerability to COVID-19. In addition, decision-makers can use this information to adopt strategies to restrict human mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic and future outbreaks of similar diseases in CABA.Fil: Bolaño Ortiz, Tomas Rafael. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Pascual Flores, Romina María. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Puliafito, Salvador Enrique. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Camargo Caicedo, Yiniva. Universidad del Magdalena; ColombiaFil: Berná Peña, Lucas Luciano. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Ministerio de Ciencia. Tecnología e Innovación Productiva. Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica; ArgentinaFil: Ruggeri, María Florencia. Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria; Chile. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Tames, María Florencia. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Cereceda Balic, Francisco. Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria; Chil

Influence of emission inventory resolution on the modeled spatio-temporal distribution of air pollutants in Buenos Aires, Argentina, using WRF-Chem

The temporal and spatial resolution of the emission inventory included into an air quality model plays a key role in the appropriate representation of air pollution events and background atmospheric chemistry. Here, we use the Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem v4.0) model to perform high-resolution air quality simulations over the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, with two different anthropogenic emissions datasets: the High-resolution Emissions Inventory of Argentina (GEAA-AEI) and the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research - Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (EDGAR-HTAP). A local optimized configuration considering 3 nested domains with a horizontal grid size of 20 × 20 km, 4 × 4 km, and 1.3 × 1.3 km and the MOZART chemical scheme was used. The model performance for NO2, PM10, PM2.5, and O3 concentrations was validated against measurements from the existing air quality monitoring stations in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) during austral fall 2018. Our results show that the daytime concentrations of air pollutants are influenced by the shape and shift of the hourly emissions profile, especially for NO2 where the reduction in nighttime emissions decreased the mean model bias by ∼50%. PM10 and PM2.5 generally satisfied the model performance criteria, but underestimation tended to occur in the GEAA-AEI simulations and overestimation for the EDGAR-HTAP case. Comparison with TROPOMI-derived tropospheric NO2 columns showed a high positive correlation (r > 0.75) and a positive bias. We found large discrepancies between the spatial distribution patterns of the simulations within the innermost high-resolution domain centered on AMBA, mostly in suburban areas where no observations are available. We propose additional monitoring sites to address such differences and determine the size and shape of the main pollutant plume. We conclude that high-resolution air quality modeling is important within underdeveloped or developing South American cities that lack continuous air quality measurements, as it represents a powerful tool in supporting the design of governmental monitoring networks and air pollution mitigation policies.Fil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Berná, Lucas. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Tames, María Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Millán, Emmanuel Nicolás. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Puliafito, Salvador Enrique. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez, Rafael Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas. - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentin

Intercomparison between surrogate, explicit, and full treatments of VSL bromine chemistry within the CAM-Chem chemistry-climate model

Many Chemistry-Climate Models (CCMs) include a simplified treatment of brominated very short-lived (VSLBr) species by assuming CH3Br as a surrogate for VSLBr. However, neglecting a comprehensive treatment of VSLBr in CCMs may yield an unrealistic representation of the associated impacts. Here, we use the Community Atmospheric Model with Chemistry (CAM-Chem) CCM to quantify the tropospheric and stratospheric changes between various VSLBr chemical approaches with increasing degrees of complexity (i.e., surrogate, explicit, and full). Our CAM-Chem results highlight the improved accuracy achieved by considering a detailed treatment of VSLBr photochemistry, including sea-salt aerosol dehalogenation and heterogeneous recycling on ice-crystals. Differences between the full and surrogate schemes maximize in the lowermost stratosphere and midlatitude free troposphere, resulting in a latitudinally dependent reduction of ∼1–7 DU in total ozone column and a ∼5%–15% decrease of the OH/HO2 ratio. We encourage all CCMs to include a complete chemical treatment of VSLBr in the troposphere and stratosphere.Fil: Fernandez, Rafael Pedro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas. - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas; Argentina. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; España. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; ArgentinaFil: Barrera, Javier Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas. - Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas; ArgentinaFil: Lopez Noreña, Ana Isabel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional de Mendoza; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Kinnison, Douglas E.. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Nicely, Julie M.. University of Maryland; Estados Unidos. Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center; Estados UnidosFil: Salawitch, Ross J.. University of Maryland; Estados UnidosFil: Wales, Pamela A.. Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center; Estados Unidos. Universities Space Research Association; Estados UnidosFil: Toselli, Beatriz Margarita. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Químicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Físico-química de Córdoba; ArgentinaFil: Tilmes, Simone. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Lamarque, Jean François. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Cuevas, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; EspañaFil: Saiz López, Alfonso. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto de Química Física; Españ