Extensive Comparison Between a Set of European Dust Regional Models and Observations in the Western Mediterranean for the Summer 2012 Pre-ChArMEx/TRAQA Campaign

Sara Basart (1) , F. Dulac (2, 3) , J. M. Baldasano (1, 4) , P. Nabat (5) , M. Mallet (6) , F. Solmon (7) , B. Laurent (8) , J. Vincent (8) , Laurent Menut (9) , L. El Amraoui (5) , B. Sic (5) , Jean-Pierre Chaboureau (6) , J.-F. Léon (6) , K. Schepanski (10) , Jean-Baptiste Renard (11) , François Ravetta (12) , Jacques Pelon (12) , C. Di Biagio (8) , P. Formenti (8) , I. Chiapello (13) , Jean-Louis Roujean (5) , X. Ceamanos (5) , D. Carrer (5) , M. Sicard (14) , H. Delbarre (15) , G. Roberts (5) , W. Junkermann (16) , Jean-Luc Attié (5, 6)

1 Earth Sciences Department [Barcelona]
2 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
3 CAE - Chimie Atmosphérique Expérimentale
4 Environmental Modelling Laboratory
5 CNRM - Centre national de recherches météorologiques
6 LAERO - Laboratoire d'aérologie
7 ICTP - Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics [Trieste]
8 LISA (UMR_7583) - Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques
9 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
10 TROPOS - Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research
11 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
12 TROPO - LATMOS
13 LOA - Laboratoire d’Optique Atmosphérique - UMR 8518
14 RSLab - Remote Sensing Laboratory [Barcelona]
15 LPCA - Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie de l'Atmosphère
16 IMK - Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research

The present analysis focuses on the model capability to properly simulate long-range Saharan dust transport for summer 2012 in the Western Mediterranean. The present contribution shows an intercomparison of a set of 9 European regional dust model simulations. An exhaustive comparison of model outputs against other models and observations can reveal weaknesses of individual models, provide an assessment of uncertainties in simulating the dust cycle and give additional information on sources for potential model improvement. The model outputs are compared against a variety of both ground-based and airborne in situ and remote sensing measurements performed during the pre-ChArMEx/TRAQA field campaign. For this kind of study, multiple and different observations are combined to deliver a detailed idea of the structure and evolution of the dust cloud and the state of the atmosphere at the different stages of the event

Domains: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; Climatology

Sara Basart, F. Dulac, J. M. Baldasano, P. Nabat, M. Mallet, et al.. Extensive Comparison Between a Set of European Dust Regional Models and Observations in the Western Mediterranean for the Summer 2012 Pre-ChArMEx/TRAQA Campaign. Douw G. Steyn and Nadine Chaumerliac. Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXIV, Springer International Publishing, pp.79-83, 2016, 978-3-319-24476-1. ⟨10.1007/978-3-319-24478-5_13⟩. ⟨insu-01272473⟩