ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Ammonia Concentrations Over
Europe – Application of the WRF-Chem
Model Supported with Dynamic Emission
Małgorzata Werner1, Maciej Kryza1, Camilla Geels2, Thomas Ellermann2, Carsten Ambelas Skjøth3
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1Department of Climatology and Atmosphere Protection, University of Wrocław, Wrocław, Poland
2Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, Roskilde, Denmark
3Institute of Science and the Environment, University of Worcester, Worcester, United Kingdom
Submission date: 2016-08-31
Acceptance date: 2016-11-23
Online publication date: 2017-04-21
Publication date: 2017-05-26
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2017;26(3):1323-1341
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ABSTRACT
Our study focuses on the application of a static and dynamic ammonia emissions based on a Europe-wide default setting into the weather research and forecasting chemistry model (WRF-Chem), and the influence on the simulated ammonia concentrations and overall model performance. The WRF-Chem model was run twice for all of Europe at a spatial resolution of 36 x 36 km for the year 2012. In the first simulation we used a static emissions approach (the “BASE” simulation) and in the second simulation we used dynamic ammonia emissions (the “DYNAMIC” simulation). Both simulations underestimate measured concentrations of NH3 for all seasons, have similar NMGE (about 0.7 μg m-3), and model hourly ammonia peaks that shift toward the afternoon hours if compared with measurements. However, for all temporal resolutions, normalised mean gross error in winter and summer is lower for DYNAMIC than for BASE. The DYNAMIC simulation also generally gives worse performance in spring for each temporal resolution. For further improvement of the modelled ammonia concentrations with WRF-Chem we suggest using a nested approach with higher spatial resolution, which will lead to better separation of the ammonia source regions from surrounding areas and take into account national practices and regulations in the emissions model, eventually only in the nested model domain.