Impact of atmospheric dust emission schemes on dust production and concentration over the Arabian Peninsula

• Published in: Modeling earth systems and environment 2016-09, Vol.2 (3), p.1-6, Article 115
• Main Authors: Fountoukis, Christos, Ackermann, Luis, Ayoub, Mohammed A., Gladich, Ivan, Hoehn, Ross D., Skillern, Adam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atmospheric particulates; Chemistry and Earth Sciences; Computer Science; Computer simulation; Dust; Dust storms; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Earth System Sciences; Ecosystems; Emission; Emissions; Environment; Fluxes; Math. Appl. in Environmental Science; Mathematical Applications in the Physical Sciences; Organic chemistry; Original Article; Particulate matter; Physics; Simulation; Spatial distribution; Statistics for Engineering; Weather forecasting
• ISSN: 2363-6203; 2363-6211
• DOI: 10.1007/s40808-016-0181-z

This study examines the impact of two of the most advanced dust emission schemes on the predictions of the weather research and forecasting model with chemistry (WRF-Chem) over the Middle East during a summer time period. Results show significant differences between the two simulations in the spatial distribution of dust emissions as well as in their size-resolved mass discretization. The AFWA scheme simulation predicts 30 % higher dust emission fluxes than the S11 module over the Arabian Peninsula (6.7 μg m −2  s −1 compared to 4.5 μg m −2  s −1 , respectively). In the S11 simulation 70 % of the emitted dust is in the 10–20 μm size range while the AFWA simulation assigns 50 % of dust emitted particles in the 6–12 μm size section. Both simulations reproduce the majority of the ambient PM 10 data (more than 70 %) within a factor of two. However, the S11 simulation predicts, on average, 50 % lower PM 10 concentrations compared to AFWA over the high resolution (2 × 2 km 2 ) domain of Qatar. Previous applications of WRF-Chem may have substantially overestimated the simulated dust in this region.