Convective distribution of dust over the Arabian Peninsula: the impact of model resolution

Along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, convective dust storms are a considerable source of mineral dust to the atmosphere. Reliable predictions of convective dust events are necessary to determine their effects on air quality, visibility, and the radiation budget. In this study, the Weather Rese...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Atmospheric chemistry and physics 2020-03, Vol.20 (5), p.2967-2986
Main Authors: Bukowski, Jennie, van den Heever, Susan C
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aerosols
Air pollution
Air quality
Analysis
Atmospheric aerosols
Atmospheric particulates
Budgets
Case studies
Clouds
Computer simulation
Convection
Convection cooling
Convection heating
Convective activity
Cooling effects
Dust
Dust emission
Dust storms
Dust transport
Emissions
Fluxes
Heating
Meteorological research
Numerical weather prediction
Parameterization
Radiation
Radiation (Physics)
Radiation budget
Resolution
Short wave radiation
Simulation
Soil
Storms
Surface wind
Uplift
Vertical advection
Vertical velocities
Visibility
Weather
Weather forecasting
Wind
Wind speed
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Summary:Along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, convective dust storms are a considerable source of mineral dust to the atmosphere. Reliable predictions of convective dust events are necessary to determine their effects on air quality, visibility, and the radiation budget. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) is used to simulate a 2016 summertime dust event over the Arabian Peninsula and examine the variability in dust fields and associated vertical transport due to the choice of convective parameterization and convection-permitting versus parameterized convection. Simulations are run at 45 and 15 km grid spacing with multiple cumulus parameterizations, and are compared to a 3 km simulation that permits explicit dry and moist convective processes. Five separate cumulus parameterizations at 15 km grid spacing were tested to quantify the spread across different parameterizations. Finally, the impact these variations have on radiation, specifically aerosol heating rates is also investigated.
ISSN:1680-7324
1680-7316
1680-7324
DOI:10.5194/acp-20-2967-2020