Low (web) Quality - BALTEX

289
In April 2000, the fire emissions are relatively low, but
produce an impact area of comparable size to the impact
area of megacitiy emissions, which is mostly located
away form coastal regions.
During the fire-season, the fire impact area is much
larger, while the impact of the megacity emissions on air
quality is of the same magnitude (not shown).
Further research will lead to a deeper understanding and
quantification of the impact of the different emission
sources on regional air quality.
References
Fig 2. Normalized difference of CO concentrations
in the lowest model level between the reference run
and the reduced megacity emissions run. Red colors
indicate an impact of more than 10%.
Jacob, D., Bärring, L., Christensen, O. B., Christensen, J.
H., de Castro, M., Déqué, M., Giorgi, F., Hagemann,
S., Hirschi, M., Jones, R., Kjellström, E., Lenderink,
G., Rockel, B., Sánchez, E., Schär, C., Seneviratne, S.
I., Somot, S., van Ulden, A. & van den Hurk, B., 'An
inter-comparison of regional climate models for
Europe: model performance in present-day climate',
Climatic Change , 81, pp. 31-52, 2007
Jacob, D., Van den Hurk, B. J. J. M., Andrae, U.,
Elgered, G., Fortelius, C., Graham, L. P., Jackson, S.
D., Karstens, U., Kopken, C., Lindau, R., Podzun, R.,
Rockel, B., Rubel, F., Sass, B. H., Smith, R. N. B. &
Yang, X., 'A comprehensive model inter-comparison
study investigating the water budget during the
BALTEX-PIDCAP period', Meteorology and
Atmospheric Physics, 77, 1-4, 19-43, 2001
Kinnison, D. E., Brasseur, G. P., Walters, S., Garcia, R.
R., Marsh, D. R., Sassi, F., Harvey, V. L., Randall, C.
E., Emmons, L., Lamarque, J. F., Hess, P., Orlando,
J. J., Tie, X. X., Randel, W., Pan, L. L., Gettelman,
A., Granier, C., Diehl, T., Niemeier, U. & Simmons,
A. J., 'Sensitivity of chemical tracers to
meteorological parameters in the MOZART-3
chemical transport model', Journal Of Geophysical
Research-Atmospheres 112, D20, D20302, 2007
Schultz, M. G., Heil, A., Hoelzemann, J. J., Spessa, A.,
Thonicke, K., Goldammer, J. G., Held, A. C., Pereira,
J. M. C. & van het Bolscher, M., 'Global wildland fire
emissions from 1960 to 2000', Global Biogeochem.
Cycles, 22, GB2002, 2008
Fig 3. Normalized difference of CO concentrations
in the lowest model level between the reference run
and the no-fires run. Red colors indicate an impact
of more than 10%.
We see that coastal regions are more affected by
megacities than by the fires in the southern part of South
America. The impact of Santiago de Chile, e.g., can reach
up to the coast of Peru, although it is simulated to be less
than 10% at maximum at the coast of southern Peru.
The impact of fire emissions in the Amazon region does
hardly reach the coastal areas while large parts of
northern Argentina, Paraguay and parts of Brazil and
Bolivia are affected by more then 20% by fire emissions.
6. Conclusions
Our results suggest that during a one month time period
air pollution episodes caused by megacities can affect
areas on a continental scale. They affect especially the
relatively high populated coastal regions of South
America.
Stockwell, W. R., Middleton, P., Chang, J. S. & Tang, X.
Y., 'The 2nd Generation Regional Acid Deposition
Model Chemical Mechanism For Regional Air-
Quality Modeling', Journal Of Geophysical
Research-Atmospheres, 95, D10, 16343-16367, 1990
Uppala, S. M., Kallberg, P. W., Simmons, A. J., Andrae,
U., Bechtold, V. D., Fiorino, M., Gibson, J. K.,
Haseler, J., Hernandez, A., Kelly, G. A., Li, X.,
Onogi, K., Saarinen, S., Sokka, N., Allan, R. P.,
Andersson, E., Arpe, K., Balmaseda, M. A., Beljaars,
A. C. M., Van De Berg, L., Bidlot, J., Bormann, N.,
Caires, S., Chevallier, F., Dethof, A., Dragosavac,
M., Fisher, M., Fuentes, M., Hagemann, S., Holm, E.,
Hoskins, B. J., Isaksen, L., Janssen, P. A. E. M.,
Jenne, R., McNally, A. P., Mahfouf, J. F., Morcrette,
J. J., Rayner, N. A., Saunders, R. W., Simon, P.,
Sterl, A., Trenberth, K. E., Untch, A., Vasiljevic, D.,
Viterbo, P. & Woollen, J., 'The ERA-40 re-analysis',
Quarterly Journal Of The Royal Meteorological
Society, 131, 612, pp. 2961-3012, 2005