title: Model representation of secondary organic aerosol in CMAQv4.7.
abstract: Numerous scientific upgrades to the representation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) are incorporated into the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system. Additions include several recently identified SOA precursors: benzene, isoprene, and sesquiterpenes; and pathways: in-cloud oxidation of glyoxal and methylglyoxal, particle-phase oligomerization, and acid enhancement of isoprene SOA. NO(x)-dependent aromatic SOA yields are also added along with new empirical measurements of the enthalpies of vaporization and organic mass-to-carbon ratios. For the first time, these SOA precursors, pathways and empirical parameters are included simultaneously in an air quality model for an annual simulation spanning the continental U.S. Comparisons of CMAQ-modeled secondary organic carbon (OC(sec)) with semiempirical estimates screened from 165 routine monitoring sites across the U.S. indicate the new SOA module substantially improves model performance. The most notable improvement occurs in the central and southeastern U.S. where the regionally averaged temporal correlations (r) between modeled and semiempirical OC(sec) increase from 0.5 to 0.8 and 0.3 to 0.8, respectively, when the new SOA module is employed. Wintertime OC(sec) results improve in all regions of the continental U.S. and the seasonal and regional patterns of biogenic SOA are better represented.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711, USA. carlton@envsci.rutgers.edu
authors.forename: Annmarie G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Carlton
authors.forename: Prakash V
authors.initials: PV
authors.lastname: Bhave
authors.forename: Sergey L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Napelenok
authors.forename: Edward O
authors.initials: EO
authors.lastname: Edney
authors.forename: Golam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sarwar
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Pinder
authors.forename: George A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Pouliot
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Houyoux
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000737:chemistry*; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D008956:Models, Chemical; D044367:Phase Transition
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D000393:Air Pollutants