TY - JOUR
T1 - Improving Air Pollution Modelling in Complex Terrain with a Coupled WRF–LOTOS–EUROS Approach
T2 - A Case Study in Aburrá Valley, Colombia
AU - Hinestroza-Ramirez, Jhon E.
AU - Lopez-Restrepo, Santiago
AU - Yarce Botero, A.
AU - Segers, Arjo
AU - Rendon-Perez, Angela Maria
AU - Isaza-Cadavid, Santiago
AU - Heemink, A.W.
AU - Quintero, Olga Lucia
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Chemical transport models (CTM) are crucial for simulating the distribution of air pollutants, such as particulate matter, and evaluating their impact on the environment and human health. However, these models rely heavily on accurate emission inventory and meteorological inputs, usually obtained from reanalyzed weather data, such as the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). These inputs do not accurately reflect the complex topography and micro-scale meteorology in tropical regions where air pollution can pose a severe public health threat. We propose coupling the LOTOS–EUROS CTM model and the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model to improve LOTOS–EUROS representation. Using WRF as a meteorological driver provides high-resolution inputs for accurate pollutant simulation. We compared LOTOS–EUROS results when WRF and ECMWF provided the meteorological inputs during low and high pollutant concentration periods. The findings indicate that the WRF–LOTOS–EUROS coupling offers a more precise representation of the meteorology and pollutant dispersion than the default input of ECMWF. The simulations also capture the spatio-temporal variability of pollutant concentration and emphasize the importance of accounting for micro-scale meteorology and topography in air pollution modelling.
AB - Chemical transport models (CTM) are crucial for simulating the distribution of air pollutants, such as particulate matter, and evaluating their impact on the environment and human health. However, these models rely heavily on accurate emission inventory and meteorological inputs, usually obtained from reanalyzed weather data, such as the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). These inputs do not accurately reflect the complex topography and micro-scale meteorology in tropical regions where air pollution can pose a severe public health threat. We propose coupling the LOTOS–EUROS CTM model and the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model to improve LOTOS–EUROS representation. Using WRF as a meteorological driver provides high-resolution inputs for accurate pollutant simulation. We compared LOTOS–EUROS results when WRF and ECMWF provided the meteorological inputs during low and high pollutant concentration periods. The findings indicate that the WRF–LOTOS–EUROS coupling offers a more precise representation of the meteorology and pollutant dispersion than the default input of ECMWF. The simulations also capture the spatio-temporal variability of pollutant concentration and emphasize the importance of accounting for micro-scale meteorology and topography in air pollution modelling.
KW - model coupling
KW - air quality modelling
KW - complex terrain
KW - particulate matter
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85156274926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/atmos14040738
DO - 10.3390/atmos14040738
M3 - Article
SN - 2073-4433
VL - 14
JO - Atmosphere
JF - Atmosphere
IS - 4
M1 - 738
ER -