Air pollution poses a significant threat to human health, the environment, and the quality of life for people throughout the world. Many countries are taking actions to enhance their technical and operational capabilities to monitor and control air quality and implement preventive actions to reduce the risks of air pollution. Air quality modeling is a cost effective tool to assess the current and future pollution estimations. One such tool is the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF)/Chemistry model, which has been developed as a state-of-the-art online modeling system. In this type of modeling system, the chemistry is integrated simultaneously with the meteorology, allowing feedback at each model time step both from meteorology to chemistry and from chemistry to meteorology. Currently WRF/Chem is completely embedded within the WRF Common Infrastructure (WRFCI). Options include several chemical mechanisms, aerosol modules, dry deposition, several options for biogenic emissions, and several options for photolysis (www.wrf-model.org/WG11). However, many scientific questions related to air chemistry may not need an "online" formulation. Similar arguments are given by operational centers who do not want to slow down their meteorological forecasts with cost intensive chemistry. Therefore, in this project, scientists from the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in India in collaboration with US scientists (the PI from CIRES/FSL and the Co-PI from NCAR) will develop an 'offline' atmospheric chemistry model from WRF/Chem. The US scientists are directly involved in the WRF/Chem development in the United States. The Indian scientists will create the software design for the 'offline' WRF/Chem model. This includes capabilities - within the WRFCI - to read and process meteorological output from any of the available WRF cores and run only the chemical part of WRF/Chem without repeating the meteorological integration. In addition, the WRF/Chem model will be used by Indian scientists for pollution forecasting as well as addressing scientific questions related to air quality issues in India.
Broader Impacts: This project will should benefit both the United States and for India because of the provision of an excellent research and forecasting tool (the off-line model) to researchers and operational scientists and the likelihood of improved understanding and prediction of atmospheric air pollution.
This research is jointly funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering and the Division of Atmospheric Sciences.
