Skip to Content

Model validation for some short-lived climate forcers in the Arctic using TCCON

The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), a working group of the Arctic Council, studies and documents the effects of climate change and pollution on Arctic climate, with the intent of informing policy recommendations. One subject of interest is the impact of Short-Lived Climate Forcers (SLCFs), atmospheric components with lifetimes shorter than that of carbon dioxide; the 2021 AMAP Report is focused on the effects of SLCFs on the Arctic and the health of those who live there. AMAP uses multiple models to determine levels of SLCFs in the Arctic; these models include CESM, CMAM, DEHM, EMEP-MSC-W, GEM-MACH, GEOS-Chem, MATCH, MATCH-SALSA, MRI-ESM2, UKESM1, and WRF-Chem. This work compares outputs from these models for carbon monoxide and, where possible, methane, to data from ground-based Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectrometers focused on the near-infrared spectral region. These spectrometers are part of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) and are located in Eureka (Nunavut, Canada), Ny Ålesund (Spitzbergen, Norway), and Sodankylä (Finland). The model outputs are mixing ratios given at three-hour intervals for the years 2014 and 2015; these are transformed as necessary to be compared to the TCCON column-averaged dry-air mole fraction (Xgas) data product. TCCON has been used for many validation studies in the past and these stations in particular provide an essential high Arctic data set with very low site-to-site bias. This talk presents preliminary results of these comparisons.

Event series  Brewer-Wilson Seminar Series