WRF-GC (v1.0): online coupling of WRF (v3.9.1.1) and GEOS-Chem (v12.2.1) for regional atmospheric chemistry modeling – Part 1: Description of the one-way model

H. Lin; H. Lin; X. Feng; T.-M. Fu; T.-M. Fu; H. Tian; Y. Ma; L. Zhang; D. J. Jacob; R. M. Yantosca; M. P. Sulprizio; E. W. Lundgren; J. Zhuang; Q. Zhang; X. Lu; X. Lu; L. Zhang; L. Shen; J. Guo; S. D. Eastham; C. A. Keller

doi:10.5194/gmd-13-3241-2020

Geoscientific Model Development (Jul 2020)

WRF-GC (v1.0): online coupling of WRF (v3.9.1.1) and GEOS-Chem (v12.2.1) for regional atmospheric chemistry modeling – Part 1: Description of the one-way model

H. Lin,
H. Lin,
X. Feng,
T.-M. Fu,
T.-M. Fu,
H. Tian,
Y. Ma,
L. Zhang,
D. J. Jacob,
R. M. Yantosca,
M. P. Sulprizio,
E. W. Lundgren,
J. Zhuang,
Q. Zhang,
X. Lu,
X. Lu,
L. Zhang,
L. Shen,
J. Guo,
S. D. Eastham,
C. A. Keller

Affiliations

H. Lin: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
H. Lin: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
X. Feng: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
T.-M. Fu: State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Integrated Surface Water-Groundwater Pollution Control, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
T.-M. Fu: Shenzhen Institute of Sustainable Development, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
H. Tian: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
Y. Ma: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
L. Zhang: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
D. J. Jacob: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
R. M. Yantosca: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
M. P. Sulprizio: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
E. W. Lundgren: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
J. Zhuang: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Q. Zhang: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
X. Lu: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
X. Lu: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
L. Zhang: Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing, China
L. Shen: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
J. Guo: State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather & Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry of CMA, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China
S. D. Eastham: Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
C. A. Keller: Universities Space Research Association, Columbia, MD, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3241-2020
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 13
pp. 3241 – 3265

Abstract

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We developed the WRF-GC model, an online coupling of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale meteorological model and the GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model, for regional atmospheric chemistry and air quality modeling. WRF and GEOS-Chem are both open-source community models. WRF-GC offers regional modellers access to the latest GEOS-Chem chemical module, which is state of the science, well documented, traceable, benchmarked, actively developed by a large international user base, and centrally managed by a dedicated support team. At the same time, WRF-GC enables GEOS-Chem users to perform high-resolution forecasts and hindcasts for any region and time of interest. WRF-GC uses unmodified copies of WRF and GEOS-Chem from their respective sources; the coupling structure allows future versions of either one of the two parent models to be integrated into WRF-GC with relative ease. Within WRF-GC, the physical and chemical state variables are managed in distributed memory and translated between WRF and GEOS-Chem by the WRF-GC coupler at runtime. We used the WRF-GC model to simulate surface PM2.5 concentrations over China during 22 to 27 January 2015 and compared the results to surface observations and the outcomes from a GEOS-Chem Classic nested-China simulation. Both models were able to reproduce the observed spatiotemporal variations of regional PM2.5, but the WRF-GC model (r=0.68, bias =29 %) reproduced the observed daily PM2.5 concentrations over eastern China better than the GEOS-Chem Classic model did (r=0.72, bias =55 %). This was because the WRF-GC simulation, nudged with surface and upper-level meteorological observations, was able to better represent the pollution meteorology during the study period. The WRF-GC model is parallelized across computational cores and scales well on massively parallel architectures. In our tests where the two models were similarly configured, the WRF-GC simulation was 3 times more efficient than the GEOS-Chem Classic nested-grid simulation due to the efficient transport algorithm and the Message Passing Interface (MPI)-based parallelization provided by the WRF software framework. WRF-GC v1.0 supports one-way coupling only, using WRF-simulated meteorological fields to drive GEOS-Chem with no chemical feedbacks. The development of two-way coupling capabilities, i.e., the ability to simulate radiative and microphysical feedbacks of chemistry to meteorology, is under way. The WRF-GC model is open source and freely available from http://wrf.geos-chem.org (last access: 10 July 2020).

Published in Geoscientific Model Development

ISSN: 1991-959X (Print); 1991-9603 (Online)
Publisher: Copernicus Publications
Country of publisher: Germany
LCC subjects: Science: Geology
Website: https://www.geoscientific-model-development.net/

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