Impact of meteorological data resolution on the forecasted ozone concentrations during the ESCOMPTE IOP2a and IOP2b

During the summer 2001, several photo-oxidant pollution episodes were documented around Marseilles-Fos-Berre in the South of France within the framework of the ESCOMPTE campaign. The site is composed of large cities (Marseilles, Aix, and Toulon), significant factories (Fos-Berre), a dense road network, and extensive rural area. Both biogenic and anthropogenic emissions are thus significative. Located close to the Mediterranean Sea and framed by the Pyrenees and the Alps Mountains, pollutant concentrations are under the influence of strong emissions as well as a complex meteorology. During the whole summer 2001, the chemistry-transport model CHIMERE was used to forecast pollutant concentrations. The ECMWF forecast meteorological fields were used as forcing, with a raw spatial and temporal resolution of 0.5° and 3 h, respectively. It was observed that even if the synoptic dynamic processes were correctly described, the resolution was not always able to detail small-scale dynamics (sea breezes and orographical winds). To estimate the impact of meteorological forcing on the modeled concentration accuracy, an intercomparison exercise has thus been carried out on the same episode but with two sets of meteorological data: ECMWF data (with horizontal and temporal resolution of 0.5° and 3 h) and data from the mesoscale model RAMS (3 km and 1 h). The two sets of meteorological data are compared and discussed in terms of raw differences as a function of time and location, and in terms of induced discrepancies between the modeled and observed ozone concentration fields. It was shown that even if the RAMS model provides a better description of land–sea breezes and nocturnal boundary layer processes, the simulated ozone time series are satisfactory with the two meteorological forcings. In the context of ozone forecast, the scores are better with ECMWF. This is attributed to the diffusive aspect of these data that will more easily catch localized peaks, while a small error in wind speed or direction in RAMS will misplace the ozone plume.