About aerosol model in photolysis rate calculation

CMAQ
1

Hi all,
I noticed two inline options related to aerosol optical properties calculation in the CMAQ documentation(v5.3.3), : OPTICS_MIE_CALC and CORE_SHELL_OPTICS. Both options seem to involve the use of Mie Theory for calculating the optical properties of aerosol modes, either based on uniformly mixed spheres or spheres with an elemental carbon core, respectively.

However, if both of these options set to “N” by default, I want to know what aerosol model is used for the photolysis rate calculation in base case. And when I set CORE_SHELL_OPTICS=Y, there are some slight differences between the results.Could you kindly provide information about it?

2

This presentation mentions the options that you refer to:

“Run-time options for Full Mie Calculation and Core-Shell Mixing Model to determine aerosol effects
In comparison to old methods: revised methods generally increase cloud transmissivity increased ozone in some cloudy areas”

https://www.cmascenter.org/conference/2014/slides/jonathan_pleim_community_multiscale_2014.pptx

There may be documentation on the older methods used in previous versions of CMAQ.

1 Like