WRF-CHEM SIMULATION OF A SAHARAN DUST OUTBREAK OVER THE MEDITERRANEAN REGIONS

Abstract

A fully coupled meteorology-chemistry-aerosol model (WRF-Chem) is applied to simulate the Saharan dust outbreak over the Mediterranean regions. Two dust emission schemes, namely, those of Jones et al., (2010), and Shao (2001) are evaluated using the the GOCART aerosol model. To investigate the performance of each dust emission scheme, a case study was carried out for a Mediterranean dust event that took place between 21 and 23 May 2014. Considering the time average Aerosol Optical Depth, simulation results reproduced satisfactorily the outbreak and transport pattern of dust plumes. However, the estimated dust emission amounts in each scheme differ greatly due to the presence of several tuning parameters, that must be adjusted considering satellite and ground based experimental data.