Description
Atmospheric particulate matter reduces visibility, adversely affects human health and impacts Earth's climate. Recent laboratory research has identified NH3 as a potentially important reactive species in the formation and aging of SOA, a significant but not-well-quantified class of aerosol particles. The goal of this project is to answer the questions: How does NH3 affect aerosol mass loadings and optical properties on a global scale? And, what impact do these effects have on air quality and climate?
The project will seek to incorporate NH3-related SOA chemistry, currently being investigated by collaborators at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), into the state-of-the-art CACM/MPMPO SOA module. The updated module will be deployed in the NMMB/BSC global chemical weather model, maintained at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). Model predictions will be validated by field measurements collected during an IDAEA-CSIC campaign. This will result in one of the most advanced SOA treatments available in global models and allow an investigation of the impact of NH3 on global SOA, air quality and climate, thus directly impacting a crosscutting issue of the Horizon 2020 Program, climate action. This project posseses the ideal conditions to successfully achieve its goal and strengthen the collaboration between the European BSC and IDAEA-CSIC, and US-based UCI teams.
