Development of the global atmospheric chemistry general circulation model BCC-GEOS-Chem v1.0: Model description and evaluation

Xiao Lu, Lin Zhang, Tongwen Wu, Michael S. Long, Jun Wang, Daniel J. Jacob, Fang Zhang, Jie Zhang, Sebastian D. Eastham, Lu Hu, Lei Zhu, Xiong Liu, Min Wei

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Abstract

Chemistry plays an indispensable role in investigations of the atmosphere; however, many climate models either ignore or greatly simplify atmospheric chemistry, limiting both their accuracy and their scope. We present the development and evaluation of the online global atmospheric chemical model BCC-GEOS-Chem v1.0, coupling the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model (CTM) as an atmospheric chemistry component in the Beijing Climate Center atmospheric general circulation model (BCC-AGCM). The GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry component includes detailed tropospheric <span classCombining double low line"inline-formula">HOx</span>-<span classCombining double low line"inline-formula">NOx</span>-volatile organic compounds-ozone-bromine-aerosol chemistry and online dry and wet deposition schemes. We then demonstrate the new capabilities of BCC-GEOS-Chem v1.0 relative to the base BCC-AGCM model through a 3-year (2012-2014) simulation with anthropogenic emissions from the Community Emissions Data System (CEDS) used in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6). The model captures well the spatial distributions and seasonal variations in tropospheric ozone, with seasonal mean biases of 0.4-2.2&thinsp;ppbv at 700-400&thinsp;hPa compared to satellite observations and within 10&thinsp;ppbv at the surface to 500&thinsp;hPa compared to global ozonesonde observations. The model has larger high-ozone biases over the tropics which we attribute to an overestimate of ozone chemical production. It underestimates ozone in the upper troposphere which is likely due either to the use of a simplified stratospheric ozone scheme or to biases in estimated stratosphere-troposphere exchange dynamics. The model diagnoses the global tropospheric ozone burden, OH concentration, and methane chemical lifetime to be 336&thinsp;Tg, <span classCombining double low line"inline-formula">1.16×106</span>&thinsp;molecule&thinsp;cm<span classCombining double low line"inline-formula">-3</span>, and 8.3&thinsp;years, respectively, which is consistent with recent multimodel assessments. The spatiotemporal distributions of <span classCombining double low line"inline-formula">NO2</span>, CO, <span classCombining double low line"inline-formula">SO2</span>, <span classCombining double low line"inline-formula">CH2O</span>, and aerosol optical depth are generally in agreement with satellite observations. The development of BCC-GEOS-Chem v1.0 represents an important step for the development of fully coupled earth system models (ESMs) in China.

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Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3817-3838
Number of pages22
JournalGeoscientific Model Development
Volume13
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 31 2020

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