Publication details

Regional modelling of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: WRF-Chem-PAH model development and East Asia case studies

Authors	MU Qing LAMMEL Gerhard GENCARELLI Christian N. HEDGECOCK Ian M. CHEN Ying PŘIBYLOVÁ Petra TEICH Monique ZHANG Yuxuan ZHENG Guangjie VAN PINXTEREN Dominik ZHANG Qiang HERRMANN Hartmut SHIRAIWA Manabu SPICHTINGER Peter SU Hang POSCHL Ulrich CHENG Yafang
Year of publication	2017
Type	Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source	Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
MU Faculty or unit	Faculty of Science
Citation
Web	https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/17/12253/2017/
Doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12253-2017
Keywords	:LUNG-CANCER RISK; SECONDARY ORGANIC AEROSOL; GOSAN BACKGROUND SITE; LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT; AIR-QUALITY MODEL; ATMOSPHERIC TRANSPORT; POLYCHLORINATED-BIPHENYLS; URBAN ATMOSPHERE; CMAQ MODEL; PART I
Description	Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are hazardous pollutants, with increasing emissions in pace with economic development in East Asia, but their distribution and fate in the atmosphere are not yet well understood. We extended the regional atmospheric chemistry model WRFC-hem (Weather Research Forecast model with Chemistry module) to comprehensively study the atmospheric distribution and the fate of low-concentration, slowly degrading semivolatile compounds. The WRF-Chem-PAH model reflects the state-of-the-art understanding of current PAHs studies with several new or updated features. It was applied for PAHs covering a wide range of volatility and hydrophobicity, i.e. phenanthrene, chrysene and benzo[a] pyrene, in East Asia. Temporally highly resolved PAH concentrations and particulate mass fractions were evaluated against observations. The WRF-Chem-PAH model is able to reasonably well simulate the concentration levels and particulate mass fractions of PAHs near the sources and at a remote outflow region of East Asia, in high spatial and temporal resolutions. Sensitivity study shows that the heterogeneous reaction with ozone and the homogeneous reaction with the nitrate radical significantly influence the fate and distributions of PAHs. The methods to implement new species and to correct the transport problems can be applied to other newly implemented species in WRF-Chem.