Impacts of Meteorological Uncertainties on the Haze Formation in
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) during Wintertime: A case study
Abstract. In the present study, a persistent heavy haze episode from 13 to 20 January 2014 in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) is simulated using the WRF-CHEM model through ensemble simulations to investigate impacts of meteorological initial uncertainties on the haze formation. Model results have shown that uncertainties in meteorological initial conditions substantially influence the aerosol constituent simulations at an observation site in Beijing, and the ratio of the ensemble spread to ensemble mean (RESM) exceeds 50 %. The ensemble mean generally preforms well in reproducing the fine particles (PM2.5) temporal variations and spatial distributions against measurements in BTH. The initial meteorological uncertainties do not alter the PM2.5 distribution pattern in BTH principally or dominate the haze formation and development, but remarkably affect the simulated PM2.5 level, and the RESM of PM2.5 concentrations can be up to 30 % at the region scale. In addition, the rather large RESM in PM2.5 simulations at the city scale also causes difficulties in implementation of the control strategies. Therefore, our results suggest that the ensemble simulation is imperative to avoid the impact of the initial meteorological uncertainties on the haze prediction.