scholarly journals Using the 3D MOCAGE CTM to simulate the chemistry of halogens in the volcanic plume of Etna's eruption in December 2018 at the regional scale

Author(s):  
Herizo Narivelo ◽  
Virginie Marécal ◽  
Paul David Hamer ◽  
Luke Surl ◽  
Tjarda Roberts ◽  
...  

<p><span>Volcanoes emit different gaseous species, SO₂ and in particular halogen species especially bromine and chlorine compounds. In general, halogens play an important role in the atmosphere by contributing to ozone depletion in the stratosphere (WMO Ozone assessment, 2018) and by modifying air composition and oxidizing capacity in the troposphere (Von Glasow et al. 2004). The halogen species emitted by volcanoes are halides. The chemical processing occurring within the plume leads to the formation of BrO from HBr following the ‘bromine explosion’ mechanism as evidenced from both observations and modelling (e.g., Bobrowski et al. Nature, 2003; Roberts et al., Chem. Geol. 2009). Oxidized forms of chlorine and bromine are modelled to be formed within the plume due to the heterogenous reaction of HOBr with HCl and HBr, forming BrCl and Br₂ that photolyses and produces Br and Cl radicals. So far, modelling studies were mainly focused on the very local scale and processes occurring within a few hours after eruption.</span></p><p><span>In this study, the objective is to go a step further by analyzing the impact at the regional scale over the Mediterranean basin of a Mt Etna eruption event. For this, we use the MOCAGE model (Guth et al., GMD, 2016), a chemistry transport model run with a resolution of 0.2°x 0.2°, to quantify the impacts of the halogens species emitted by the volcano on the tropospheric composition. We have selected here the case of the eruption of Mount Etna around Christmas 2018 characterised by large amounts of emissions over several days (Calvari et al., remote sensing 2020; Corrdadini et al., remote sensing 2020). The results show that MOCAGE represents rather well the chemistry of the halogens in the volcanic plume because it established theory of plume chemistry. The bromine explosion process takes place on the first day of the eruption and even more strongly the day after, with a rapid increase of the in-plume BrO concentrations and a corresponding strong reduction of ozone and NO2 concentrations.</span></p><p><span>We also compared MOCAGE results with the WRF-CHEM model simulations for the same case study. We note that the tropospheric column of BrO and SO₂ in the two models have the same order of magnitude with more rapid bromine explosion occurring in WRF-CHEM simulations. Finally, we compared the MOCAGE results to tropospheric columns of BrO and SO</span><sub><span>2</span></sub><span> retrieved from TROPOMI spaceborne instrument.</span></p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Lamotte ◽  
Jonathan Guth ◽  
Virginie Marécal ◽  
Giuseppe Salerno ◽  
Nicolas Theys ◽  
...  

<p><span>Volcanic eruptions are events that can eject several tons of material into the atmosphere. Among these emissions, sulfur dioxide is the main sulfurous volcanic gas. It can form sulfate aerosols that are harmful to health or, being highly soluble, it can condense in water particles and form acid rain. Thus, volcanic eruptions can have an environmental impact on a regional scale.</span></p><p><span>The Mediterranean region is very interesting from this point of view because it is a densely populated region with a strong anthropogenic activity, therefore polluted, in which Mount Etna is also located. Mount Etna is the largest passive SO<sub>2</sub> emitter in Europe, but it can also sporadically produce strong eruptive events. It is then likely that the additional input of sulfur compounds into the atmosphere by volcanic emissions may have effects on the regional atmospheric sulfur composition.</span></p><p><span>We are particularly investigating the eruption of Mount Etna on December 24, 2018 [Corradini et al, 2020]. This eruption took place along a 2 km long breach on the side of the volcano, thus at a lower altitude than its main crater. About 100 kt of SO<sub>2</sub> and 35 kt of ash were released in total, between December 24 and 30. With the exception of the 24th, the quantities of ash were always lower than the SO<sub>2.</sub></span></p><p><span>The availability of the TROPOMI SO<sub>2</sub><sub></sub></span><span>column </span><span>estimates, at fine </span><span>spatial</span><span> resolution </span><span>(7 km x 3.5 km at nadir) and </span><span>associated averaging kernels</span><span>,</span><span> during this eruptive period made it also an excellent case study. </span><span>It </span><span>allow</span><span>s</span><span> us to follow the evolution of SO<sub>2</sub> in the volcanic plume over several days.</span></p><p><span>Using the CNRM MOCAGE chemistry-transport model (CTM), we aim to quantify the impact of this volcanic eruption on atmospheric composition, sulfur deposition and air quality at the regional scale. The comparison of the model with the TROPOMI observation data allows us to assess the ability of the model to properly represent the plume. In spite of a particular meteorological situation, leading to a complex plume transport, MOCAGE shows a good agreement with TROPOMI observations. Thus, from the MOCAGE simulation, we can evaluate the impact of the eruption on the regional concentrations of SO<sub>2</sub> and sulfate aerosols, but also analyse the quantities of dry and wet deposition, and compare it to surface measurement stations.</span></p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Marécal ◽  
Ronan Voisin-Pessis ◽  
Tjarda Roberts ◽  
Paul Hamer ◽  
Alessandro Aiuppa ◽  
...  

<p>Halogen halides emitted by volcanoes are known to rapidly convert within plumes into BrO while depleting ozone, as clearly shown by observations and models over the past 2 decades (e.g. review by Gutmann et al., 2018). So far, most of the modelling studies have focused on the plume processes occurring in the first few hours after the emission. The only study at the regional scale is that of Jourdain et al. (2016). They assessed the impact of volcanic halogens for a period of strong degassing of the Ambrym volcano, showing in particular its effect on the atmospheric oxidizing capacity and methane lifetime.</p><p>A step further would be to quantify the impact of volcanic halogens at the global scale using global chemistry models. This type of model uses a horizontal resolution (greater than 50 km) that is much coarser than the plume size. This raises the issue of, whether at this resolution, it is possible to represent the chemistry occurring under high concentrations within the plume. To assess this, a sub-grid scale parameterization is proposed. It has been tested in the 1D version of MOCAGE global and regional chemistry transport model for a short eruption of Mt Etna on the 10<sup>th</sup> of May 2008. The results show that while using the subgrid-scale plume parameterization or not does change the timing of when the maximum BrO occurs but does not affect the predicted maximum concentration. The same finding is made when using a range of different settings in the parameterization regarding dilution of the plume with its environment. The 1D model results show a sensitivity of BrO formation to parameters other than the sub-grid scale effects: composition of the plume at the vent, injection height of the emissions, and time of the day when the eruption takes place.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 6841-6861 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasquale Sellitto ◽  
Alcide di Sarra ◽  
Stefano Corradini ◽  
Marie Boichu ◽  
Hervé Herbin ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this paper we combine SO2 and ash plume dispersion modelling with satellite and surface remote sensing observations to study the regional influence of a relatively weak volcanic eruption from Mount Etna on the optical and micro-physical properties of Mediterranean aerosols. We analyse the Mount Etna eruption episode of 25–27 October 2013. The evolution of the plume along the trajectory is investigated by means of the FLEXible PARTicle Lagrangian dispersion (FLEXPART) model. The satellite data set includes true colour images, retrieved values of volcanic SO2 and ash, estimates of SO2 and ash emission rates derived from MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) observations and estimates of cloud top pressure from SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager). Surface remote sensing measurements of aerosol and SO2 made at the ENEA Station for Climate Observations (35.52° N, 12.63° E; 50 m a.s.l.) on the island of Lampedusa are used in the analysis. The combination of these different data sets suggests that SO2 and ash, despite the initial injection at about 7.0 km altitude, reached altitudes around 10–12 km and influenced the column average aerosol particle size distribution at a distance of more than 350 km downwind. This study indicates that even a relatively weak volcanic eruption may produce an observable effect on the aerosol properties at the regional scale. The impact of secondary sulfate particles on the aerosol size distribution at Lampedusa is discussed and estimates of the clear-sky direct aerosol radiative forcing are derived. Daily shortwave radiative forcing efficiencies, i.e. radiative forcing per unit AOD (aerosol optical depth), are calculated with the LibRadtran model. They are estimated between −39 and −48 W m−2 AOD−1 at the top of the atmosphere and between −66 and −49 W m−2 AOD−1 at the surface, with the variability in the estimates mainly depending on the aerosol single scattering albedo. These results suggest that sulfate particles played a large role in the transported plume composition and radiative forcing, while the contribution by ash particles was small in the volcanic plume arriving at Lampedusa during this event.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Mommertz ◽  
Lars Konen ◽  
Martin Schodlok

<p>Soil is one of the world’s most important natural resources for human livelihood as it provides food and clean water. Therefore, its preservation is of huge importance. For this purpose, a proficient regional database on soil properties is needed. The project “ReCharBo” (Regional Characterisation of Soil Properties) has the objective to combine remote sensing, geophysical and pedological methods to determine soil characteristics on a regional scale. Its aim is to characterise soils non-invasive, time and cost efficient and with a minimal number of soil samples to calibrate the measurements. Konen et al. (2021) give detailed information on the research concept and first field results in a presentation in the session “SSS10.3 Digital Soil Mapping and Assessment”. Hyperspectral remote sensing is a powerful and well known technique to characterise near surface soil properties. Depending on the sensor technology and the data quality, a wide variety of soil properties can be derived with remotely sensed data (Chabrillat et al. 2019, Stenberg et al. 2010). The project aims to investigate the effects of up and downscaling, namely which detail of information is preserved on a regional scale and how a change in scales affects the analysis algorithms and the possibility to retrieve valid soil parameter information. Thus, e.g. laboratory and field spectroscopy are applied to gain information of samples and fieldspots, respectively. Various UAV-based sensors, e.g. thermal & hyperspectral sensors, are applied to study soil properties of arable land in different study areas at field scale. Finally, airborne (helicopter) hyperspectral data will cover the regional scale. Additionally forthcoming spaceborne hyperspectral satellite data (e.g. Prisma, EnMAP, Sentinel-CHIME) are a promising outlook to gain detailed regional soil information. In this context it will be discussed how the multisensor data acquisition is best managed to optimise soil parameter retrieval. Sensor specific properties regarding time and date of acquisition as well as weather/atmospheric conditions are outlined. The presentation addresses and discusses the impact of a multisensor and multiscale remote sensing data collection regarding the results on soil parameter retrieval.</p><p> </p><p>References</p><p>Chabrillat, S., Ben-Dor, E. Cierniewski, J., Gomez, C., Schmid, T. & van Wesemael, B. (2019): Imaging Spectroscopy for Soil Mapping and Monitoring. Surveys in Geophysics 40:361–399. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-019-09524-0</p><p>Stenberg, B., Viscarra Rossel, R. A., Mounem Mouazen, A. & Wetterlind, J. (2010): Visible and Near Infrared Spectroscopy in Soil Science. In: Donald L. Sparks (editor): Advances in Agronomy. Vol. 107. Academic Press:163-215. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2113(10)07005-7</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1711-1727 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Real ◽  
K. Sartelet

Abstract. This paper evaluates the impact of photolysis rate calculation on simulated European air composition and air quality. In particular, the impact of the cloud parametrisation and the impact of aerosols on photolysis rates are analysed. Photolysis rates are simulated using the Fast-JX photolysis scheme and gas and aerosol concentrations over Europe are simulated with the regional chemistry-transport model Polair3D of the Polyphemus platform. The photolysis scheme is first used to update the clear-sky tabulation of photolysis rates used in the previous Polair3D version. Important differences in photolysis rates are simulated, mainly due to updated cross-sections and quantum yields in the Fast-JX scheme. In the previous Polair3D version, clouds were taken into account by multiplying the clear-sky photolysis rates by a correction factor. In the new version, clouds are taken into account more accurately by simulating them directly in the photolysis scheme. Differences in photolysis rates inside clouds can be large but outside clouds, and especially at the ground, differences are small. To take into account the impact of aerosols on photolysis rates, Polair3D and Fast-JX are coupled. Photolysis rates are updated every hour. Large impact on photolysis rates is observed at the ground, decreasing with altitude. The aerosol specie that impact the most photolysis rates is dust especially in south Europe. Strong impact is also observed over anthropogenic emission regions (Paris, The Po and the Ruhr Valley) where mainly nitrate and sulphate reduce the incoming radiation. Differences in photolysis rates lead to changes in gas concentrations, with the largest impact simulated on OH and NO concentrations. At the ground, monthly mean concentrations of both species are reduced over Europe by around 10 to 14% and their tropospheric burden by around 10%. The decrease in OH leads to an increase of the life-time of several species such as VOC. NO2 concentrations are not strongly impacted and O3 concentrations are mostly reduced at the ground (−3%). O3 peaks are systematically decreased because of the NO2 photolysis rate coefficient decrease. Not only gas are impacted but also secondary aerosols, due to changes in gas precursors concentrations. However changes in aerosol species concentrations often compensate each other resulting in a low impact on PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations (lower than 2%). The changes in gas concentrations at the ground induced by the modification of photolysis rates (by aerosols and clouds) are compared to changes induced by 29 different model parametrisations in Roustan et al. (2010). Among the 31 model parametrisations, "including aerosols on photolysis rates calculation" has the strongest impact on OH concentrations and on O3 bias in July. In terms of air quality, ground concentrations (NO2, O3, PM10) are compared with measurements. Changes arising from cloud parametrisation are small. Simulation performances are often slightly better when including aerosol in photolysis rates calculation. The systematic O3 peak reduction leads to large differences in the exceedances of the European O3 standard as calculated by the model, in better agreement with measurements. The number of exceedances of the information and the alert threshold is divided by 2 when the aerosol impact on photochemistry is simulated. This shows the importance of taking into account aerosols impact on photolysis rates in air quality studies.


2009 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Kalbus ◽  
C. Schmidt ◽  
J. W. Molson ◽  
F. Reinstorf ◽  
M. Schirmer

Abstract. The spatial distribution of groundwater fluxes through a streambed can be highly variable, most often resulting from a heterogeneous distribution of aquifer and streambed permeabilities along the flow pathways. Using a groundwater flow and heat transport model, we defined four scenarios of aquifer and streambed permeability distributions to simulate and assess the impact of subsurface heterogeneity on the distribution of groundwater fluxes through the streambed: (a) a homogeneous low-K streambed within a heterogeneous aquifer; (b) a heterogeneous streambed within a homogeneous aquifer; (c) a well connected heterogeneous low-K streambed within a heterogeneous aquifer; and (d) a poorly connected heterogeneous low-K streambed within a heterogeneous aquifer. The simulation results were compared with a base case scenario, in which the streambed had the same properties as the aquifer, and with observed data. The results indicated that the aquifer has a stronger influence on the distribution of groundwater fluxes through the streambed than the streambed itself. However, a homogeneous low-K streambed, a case often implemented in regional-scale groundwater flow models, resulted in a strong homogenization of fluxes, which may have important implications for the estimation of peak mass flows. The flux distributions simulated with heterogeneous low-K streambeds were similar to the flux distributions of the base case scenario, despite the lower permeability. The representation of heterogeneous distributions of aquifer and streambed properties in the model has been proven to be beneficial for the accuracy of flow simulations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 2581-2650 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Grellier ◽  
V. Marécal ◽  
B. Josse ◽  
P. D. Hamer ◽  
T. J. Roberts ◽  
...  

Abstract. Volcanoes are a known source of halogens to the atmosphere. HBr volcanic emissions lead rapidly to the formation of BrO within volcanic plumes as shown by recent work based on observations and models. BrO, having a longer residence time in the atmosphere than HBr, is expected to have a significant impact on tropospheric chemistry, at least at the local and regional scales. The objective of this paper is to prepare a framework that will allow 3-D modelling of volcanic halogen emissions in order to determine their fate within the volcanic plume and then in the atmosphere at the regional and global scales. This work is based on a 1-D configuration of the chemistry transport model MOCAGE whose low computational cost allows us to perform a large set of sensitivity studies. This paper studies the Etna eruption on the 10 May 2008 that took place just before night time. Adaptations are made to MOCAGE to be able to produce the chemistry occurring within the volcanic plume. A simple sub-grid scale parameterization of the volcanic plume is implemented and tested. The use of this parameterization in a 0.5° × 0.5° configuration (typical regional resolution) has an influence on the partitioning between the various bromine compounds both during the eruption period and also during the night period immediately afterwards. During the day after the eruption, simulations both with and without parameterizations give very similar results that are consistent with the tropospheric column of BrO and SO2 in the volcanic plume derived from GOME-2 observations. Tests have been performed to evaluate the sensitivity of the results to the mixing between ambient air and the magmatic air at very high temperature at the crater vent that modifies the composition of the emission, and in particular the sulphate aerosol content that is key compound in the BrO production. Simulations show that the plume chemistry is not very sensitive to the assumptions used for the mixing parameter (relative quantity of ambient air mixed with magmatic air in the mixture) that is not well known. This is because there is no large change in the compounds limiting/favouring the BrO production in the plume. The impact of the model grid resolution is also tested in view of future 3-D-simulations at the global scale. A dilution of the emitted gases and aerosols is observed when using the typical global resolution (2°) as compared to a typical regional resolution (0.5°), as expected. Taking this into account, the results of the 2° resolution simulations are consistent with the GOME-2 observations. In general the simulations at 2° resolution are less efficient at producing BrO after the emission both with and without the subgrid-scale parameterization. The differences are mainly due to an interaction between concentration effects than stem from using a reduced volume in the 0.5° resolution combined with second order rate kinetics. The last series of tests were on the mean radius assumed for the sulphate aerosols that indirectly impacts the production of BrO by heterogeneous reactions. The simulations show that the BrO production is sensitive to this parameter with a stronger production when smaller aerosols are assumed. These results will be used to guide the implementation of volcanic halogen emissions in the 3-D configuration of MOCAGE.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3B) ◽  
pp. 227-237
Author(s):  
Pham Viet Hong ◽  
Tran Anh Tuan ◽  
Nguyen Thi Anh Nguyet

Today, environmental hazards and challenges are no longer confined to the national or regional scale but on the global scale. One of the biggest challenges for humanity is the natural disasters, global warming and sea level rise. The natural disasters causing serious consequences for human life, such as: Storms, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, desertification, high tides... increase in frequency, intensity and scale. In recent years, Ca Mau province as well as coastal provinces of Vietnam is under great influence due to the impacts of climate change. One of the most affected districts in Ca Mau province is Ngoc Hien district. The district has a geographic location with three sides bordering the sea, one side bordering the river, a completely isolated terrain. The terrain is flat, strongly divided by the system of natural rivers and canals and intertwined canals, so it is constantly flooded by the sea. Ngoc Hien district is characterized by a sub-equatorial monsoon climate, directly affected by irregular semi-diurnal regime. The main purpose of the paper is to assess coastal vulnerability due to the impact of climate change over time with GIS-based remote sensing images. Remote sensing data with multi-time characteristics, collected in many periods and covering a wide area is an effective tool for monitoring shoreline fluctuations in particular and land use status of the study area in general.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Al Bitar ◽  
Taeken Wijmer ◽  
Ludovic Arnaud ◽  
Remy Fieuzal ◽  
Gaetan Pique ◽  
...  

<p>Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 2 that addresses food security and sustainable agriculture requires the promotion of readily transferable and scalable agronomical solutions. The combination of high-resolution remote sensing data, field information, and physical models is identified as a robust way of answering this requirement.  Here, we present the AgriCarbon-EO tool, a decision support system that provides the yield, biomass, water and carbon budget components of agricultural fields at a 10m resolution and at a regional scale. The tool assimilates high resolution optical remote sensing data from Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites into a  radiative transfer model and a crop model. First, the application of a spatial Bayesian retrieval approach to the PROSAIL radiative transfer model provides Leaf Area Index (LAI) with its associated uncertainty. Second, LAI is assimilated into the SAFYE-CO2 crop model using a temporal Bayesian retrieval that enables the calculation of the yield, biomass, carbon and water budgets components with their associated uncertainties. In addition to remote sensing data, input datasets of crop types, weather and soil data are used to constrain the system. The concise weather data is provided from local weather stations or weather forecasts and is used to force the crop model (SAFYE-CO2) dynamics. The soil data are used in two folds. First to better parametrize the soil emissions in the radiative model retrievals and second to parametrise the water infiltration in the soil module of the crop model. The AgriCarbon-EO tool has been optimized to enable the computation of the yield, carbon, and water budget at high spatial resolution (10m) and large scale (100km2). The model is applied over the South-West of France covered by 3 Sentinel-2 tiles for major crops (wheat, maize,  sunflower). The outputs are validated over experimental plots for biomass, yield, soil moisture, and CO2 fluxes located all in the South-West of France. The experimental sites include the FR-AUR and FR-LAM ICOS sites and 22 cropland fields (biomass sampling). The validation exercise is done for the 2017-2018 and 2019-2020 cultural years. We show the added value of the use of high resolution in driving the crop model to take into account the impact of complex processes that are embedded in the LAI signal like vegetation water stress, disease, and agricultural practices. We show that the system is capable of providing the yield, carbon, and water budget of major crops accurately.  At the regional scale, we give global estimates of the carbon budget, water needs, and yields per crop type. We present the impact of intra-plot heterogeneity in the estimation of yield and the annual carbon and water budget showing the added value for high-resolution intra-plot modeling.</p>


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Régis Briant ◽  
Paolo Tuccella ◽  
Adrien Deroubaix ◽  
Dmitry Khvorostyanov ◽  
Laurent Menut ◽  
...  

Abstract. The presence of airborne aerosols affects the meteorology as it induces a perturbation in the radiation budget, the number of cloud condensation nuclei and the cloud micro-physics. Those effects are difficult to model at regional scale as several distinct models are usually involved. In this paper, the coupling of the CHIMERE chemistry-transport model with the WRF meteorological model using the OASIS3-MCT coupler is presented. WRF meteorological fields along with CHIMERE aerosol optical properties are exchanged through the coupler at a high frequency in order to model the aerosol direct and semidirect effects. The WRF-CHIMERE online model has a higher computational burden than both models ran separately in offline mode (up to 42 % higher). This is mainly due to some additional computations made within the models such as more frequent calls to meteorology treatment routines or calls to optical properties computations routines. On the other hand, the overall time required to perform the OASIS3-MCT exchanges is not significant compared to the total duration of the simulations. The impact of the coupling is evaluated on a case study over Europe, northern Africa, Middle East and western Asia during the Summer 2012, through comparisons of the offline and two online simulations (with and without the aerosol optical properties feedback) to observations of temperature, Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and surface PM10 (particulate matter with diameters lower than 10 µm) concentrations. Result shows that using the optical properties feedback induces a radiative forcing (average forcing of −4.8 W.m−2) which creates a perturbation in the average surface temperatures over desert areas (up to 2.6° locally) along with an increase of both AOD and PM10 concentrations.


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