Aerosol simulation applying high resolution anthropogenic emissions with the EMAC chemistry-climate model

The new high resolution global anthropogenic emission inventory (EDGAR-CIRCE) of gas and aerosol pollutants has been incorporated in the chemistry general circulation model EMAC (ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry). A high horizontal resolution simulation is performed for the years 2005–2008 to evaluate the capability of the model and the emissions to reproduce observed aerosol concentrations and aerosol optical depth (AOD) values. Model output is compared with observations from different measurement networks (CASTNET, EMEP and EANET) and AODs from remote sensing instruments (MODIS and MISR). The model reproduces the main spatial and temporal atmospheric features of the sulfate, ammonium and nitrate aerosol distributions. A good spatial agreement of the distribution of sulfate and ammonium aerosol is found when compared to observations, while calculated nitrate aerosol concentrations show some discrepancies. The simulated temporal development of the inorganic aerosols is in line with measurements of sulfate and nitrate aerosol, while for ammonium aerosol some deviations from observations occur over the USA. The calculated AODs agree well with the satellite observations in most regions, while a negative bias is found for the equatorial area and in the dust outflow regions (i.e. Central Atlantic and Northern Indian Ocean), due to an underestimation of biomass burning and aeolian dust emissions, respectively.