5th International GEOS–Chem Meeting
Monday May 2 to Thursday May 5, 2011
G115 Auditorium, Maxwell-Dworkin Building
Harvard University

GEOS–Chem is an open-source global model of atmospheric composition used by over 70 research groups around the world for a very wide range of applications. The 5th GEOS–Chem Meeting was held at Harvard on May 2-5, 2011 to provide an opportunity for the GEOS–Chem user community to share results, address problems, initiate collaborations, set new directions for model development, and contribute to model management and vision. Much beyond that, the meeting provided a general forum for discussion of cutting-edge issues in modeling atmospheric composition.

We acknowledge generous funding from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Electric Power Research Institude (EPRI), the Harvard University Committee on the Environment (HUCE), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and the UK National Center for Atmospheric Science (NCAS)

PRESENTATIONS AND POSTERS

Day 1 (May 2): Model overview and development | Aerosol sources and chemistry | Organic aerosol |
Aerosol processes and radiative forcing | Tropospheric ozone | Photochemistry

Day 2 (May 3): Sources and sinks | Sources and sinks: Nitrogen gases |
Carbon gases | Climate-chemistry interactions | Mercury and POPs

Day 3 (May 4): Transport and dynamics | Regional air quality | Working group breakout sessions

Day 4 (May 5): Working group reports | Business meeting | Model clinics

Day 1, Session 1:
Model overview and development

Presentations

• Welcome (Daniel Jacob, Harvard / Randall Martin, Dalhousie)

• GEOS–Chem model: new developments, future directions (Daniel Jacob, Harvard)

• GEOS–Chem adjoint model: new developments, future directions (Daven Henze, U Colorado, Boulder)

• GEOS–Chem code: recent developments, future directions (Bob Yantosca, Harvard)

• The view from NASA Headquarters (Richard Eckman, NASA)

Day 1, Session 2:
Aerosol sources and chemistry (Chair: Havala Pye, US EPA)

Presentations:

• Sources, distribution, and acidity of sulfate-ammonium aerosol in the Arctic in winter-spring (Jenny Fisher, Harvard)

• New constraints on the global distribution of sea salt aerosols (Lyatt Jaeglé, U. Washington)

• The sensitivity of aerosol formation and cloud-condensation nuclei to cosmic rays in GEOS–Chem/TOMAS (Jeffrey Pierce, Dalhousie)

• Modeling new particle formation in GEOS–Chem (Dan Westervelt, Carnegie Mellon Univ.)

• Updated dust-iron dissolution mechanism in GEOS–Chem: effects of organic acids, photolysis, cloud cycling and dust mineralogy (Matthew Johnson, North Carolina State U.)

• Sources of carbonaceous aerosols and deposited black carbon in the Arctic in winter-spring (Qiaoqiao Wang, Harvard)

• Forest fire contribution to black carbon in the western United States (Yuhao Mao, UCLA)

Posters:

• Top-down estimate of aerosol emissions over China using MODIS reflectance and GEOS–Chem adjoint models (Xiaoguang Xu, Univ. Nebraska-Lincoln)

• Top-down estimates of soil dust emissions in East Asia using inverse methods (Bonyang Ku, Seoul Nat'l Univ.)

Day 1, Session 3:
Organic aerosol (Chair: Jeffrey Pierce, Dalhousie U.)

Presentations:

• Sources of carbonaceous aerosols in China (May Fu, Peking Univ)

• Extended SOA formation model considering SOG oxidation aging and kinetic condensation: GEOS–Chem simulations and comparisons with measurements (Fangqun Yu, SUNY Albany)

• What satellite and aircraft observations can tell us about the organic aerosol budget (Colette Heald, Colorado State Univ.)

• Investigating organic aerosol loading in the remote marine environment (Kateryna Lapina, Colorado State Univ.)

• Secondary organic aerosol from low volatility and traditional VOC precursors (Havala Pye, US EPA)

Posters:

• Modeling of marine primary and secondary organic aerosols (Nicholas Meskhidze, North Carolina State Univ.)

• Modeling organic aerosol: using regional models to characterize global models (Joseph Ensberg, Caltech)

• Sensitivity of atmospheric transport of carbonaceous aerosols to aging mechanism (Yaoxian Huang, Michigan Tech Univ.)

Day 1, Session 4:
Aerosol processes and radiative forcing (Chair: Fangqun Yu, SUNY-Albany)

Presentations:

• North African dust export: a global 3-D model analysis using MODIS, MISR, CALIPSO, and AERONET observations (David Ridley, Colorado State Univ.)

• Origin and radiative forcing of black carbon transported to the Himalayas (Monika Kopacz, NOAA)

• Aerosol scavenging in continental outflow pathways (Sungshik "Patrick" Kim, Harvard)

• Estimate of volcanic aerosol forcing by combined use of OMI SO2 data and GEOS–Chem (Jun Wang, Univ. Nebraska-Lincoln)

• A new GEOS–Chem post-processing tool for aerosol optical properties calculations (Gabriele Curci, Univ. of L'Aquila)

• GEOS–Chem + APM simulations over three nested domains (Europe-North America-East Asia) and comparisons with particle measurements (Gan Luo, SUNY-Albany)

• Impact of mixing state on aerosol optical depth and radiative forcing: simulation of APM (Xiaoyan Ma, SUNY-Albany)

Posters:

• Satellite observations and model simulations of Arctic aerosols (Maurizio Di Pierro, U. Washington)

• Mineral dust events over the Mediterranean: GEOS–Chem + APM simulation and comparison with observations (Kevin Bartlett, SUNY-Albany)

• Comparison of particle microphysics modeling over North America using GEOS–Chem + APM and WRF–Chem + APM (Gan Luo, SUNY-Albany)

• Deriving the effect of wind speed on clean maritime aerosol optical properties using CALIPSO data (KV Praju, North Carolina State Univ.)

• Global simulations of aerosol size-dependent in-cloud scavenging (Betty Croft, Dalhousie)

• Joint retrieval of aerosol optical properties over North America using GEOS–Chem and MISR (Shenshen Li, Emory Univ.)

• Evaluating GEOS–Chem predicted mineral dust transport using remotely-sensed data from the A-Train satellites (Matthew Johnson, North Carolina State Univ.)

• Intercontinental influence of NOx and CO emissions on particulate matter air quality (Eric Leibensperger, Harvard)

Day 1, Session 5:
Tropspheric ozone (Chair: Shiliang Wu, Michigan Tech U.)

Presentations:

• Sensitivity analysis of tropospheric ozone at middle and high latitudes to precursor emissions (Thomas Walker, U. Toronto)

• Variability in tropospheric oxidant concentrations on interannual to interglacial time scales (Lee Murray, Harvard)

• Vertical distribution and sources of tropospheric ozone over South China in spring 2004: Ozonesonde measurements and modeling analysis (Hongyu Liu, NIA/NASA Langley)

• Evaluating ozone production efficiency in GEOS–Chem and satellite measurements (Matthew Cooper, Dalhousie)

• Using error correlations between ozone and CO for geostationary measurements of ozone air quality (Peter Zoogman, Harvard)

Posters:

• The impact of wildfires on surface ozone in Western US (Mei Gao, UCLA)

• Trends in Atlantic free troposphere CO and ozone from 2001-2010: a comparison of GEOS–Chem and PICO-NARE measurements (Mark Weise, Michigan Tech Univ.)

• Cross-evaluation of OMI ozone profiles and GMI chemical transport model simulations (Xiong Liu, Harvard Smithsonian CFA)

• Evaluating the factors influencing the tropospheric ozone distribution over the North Atlantic during summer 2010 with GEOS–Chem and its adjoint (Mark Parrington, Univ. of Edinburgh)

• Using fire impulses to diagnose OH levels in GEOS–Chem (Mingquan Mu, UC Irvine)

• Evaluation of a hierarchy of chemical mechanisms to model net ozone production from seasonal biomass burning in boreal North America over the western boundary of the North Atlantic (A. Rickard, U. Leeds)

Day 1, Session 6:
Photochemistry (Chair: Nicholas Meshkidze, North Carolina State U.)

Presentations:

• Accounting for non-linear chemistry of NOx shipping plumes in GEOS–Chem; development, evaluation and implementation (Geert Vinken, Eindhoven Univ. of Technology)

• Understanding some of the simpler uncertainties in the GEOS–Chem chemistry (Mat Evans, Univ. Leeds)

• Sensitivity of continental boundary layer chemistry to a new isoprene oxidation mechanism (Jingqiu Mao, NOAA GFDL)

• NOx spikes in the Arctic: chemistry or transport? (Shiliang Wu, Michigan Tech Univ.)

• Bromine chemistry in GEOS–Chem and its impact on ozone in the present-day and preindustrial atmosphere (Justin Parrella, Harvard)

• Long term measurements and modeling of OH and HO2 radicals at a tropical marine location (Daniel Stone, Univ. Leeds)

Posters:

• Impact of mechanistic changes of isoprene oxidation in GEOS–Chem (Chris Miller, Harvard)

• HOx Budgets during HOx-Comp: a Case Study of HOx Chemistry under NOx limited Conditions (Yasin Elshorbany, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry)

• Investigating the impact of snowpack photodenitrification on Antarctic atmospheric chemistry utilizing results from a snowpack radiative transfer model in a global chemical transport model (Maria Zatko, U Washington)

• Isoprene oxidation mechanisms — modeling of OH and HO2 (Daniel Stone, Univ. Leeds)

• Interpreting the isotopic composition of sulfate and nitrate from an Antarctic ice core using GEOS–Chem (Eric Sofen, U Washington)

Day 2, Session 1:
Sources and sinks (Chair: May Fu, Peking U.)

Presentations:

• Integrating daily and hourly fire emissions into GEOS–Chem and impacts on atmospheric CO (James Randerson, UC Irvine)

• Bayesian statistical modeling of correlated error structure in atmospheric tracer inverse analysis (Prasad Kasibhatla, Duke)

• Space-based estimates of anthropogenic SO2 emissions (Randall Martin, Dalhousie)

• Constraining global dust emissions using MISR AOD and OMI Aerosol Index (Qinbin Li, UCLA)

• Inversion of global isoprene emissions (Yuhang Wang, Georgia Inst. of Tech.)

• Simulating Amazonian biogenic emissions and tropospheric chemistry using a GEOS–Chem nested grid (Michael Barkley, Univ. of Leicester)

• Using GEOS–Chem to obtain a top-down estimate of isoprene emissions over Africa (Eloise Marais, Harvard)

• Assessing the range of modeled source influences on column concentrations of short-lived species (SO2, NH3, and NOx) using adjoint sensitivities (Alexander Turner, U Colorado Boulder)

• Toward inverse modeling of US methane sources: The effect of model resolution on comparisons to SCIAMACHY and INTEX-NA (Kevin Wecht, Harvard)

• Biogenic methanol production by plant functional type: insights from GEOS–Chem and space-based observations (Kelley Wells, Univ. Minnesota)

Posters:

• Hourly biomass burning emissions product from global geostationary satellite constellation, and its application in GEOS–Chem (Xiaoyang Zhang, NOAA)

• Biogenic emissions of volatile organic compounds in China estimated using satellite measurements and the GEOS–Chem model (Yu Fu, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

• Recent advances in applying satellite observations for inverse modeling of NOx emissions (Akhila Padmanabhan, Dalhousie)

• Using TES to determine the composition of boreal biomass burning plumes (Matthew Alvarado, AER)

• CO2: CO error correlation as a method for improving source / sink inversion with satellite data (Huiqun Wang, Harvard Smithsonian CFA)

Day 2, Session 2:
Sources and sinks: Nitrogen gases (Chair: Qinbin Li, UCLA)

Presentations:

• An improved biogenic soil NOx model for GEOS–Chem: influence on global ozone and fertilization effect of anthropogenic deposition (Rynda Hudman, UC Berkeley)

• Source attribution of nitrogen deposition over the United States (Lin Zhang, Harvard)

• Application of satellite observations for timely update to global anthropogenic NOx emission inventories (Lok Lamsal, NASA GSFC)

• NOx emissions from power plants in China: bottom-up estimates and satellite constraints (Siwen Wang, Tsinghua Univ.)

• Fast update of NOx emission trend for China: synthesis of bottom-up method and satellite observations (Qiang Zhang, Tsinghua Univ.)

• Improving the lightning NOx source using satellite observations and the adjoint of GEOS–Chem (Nicolas Bousserez, Dalhousie)

Posters:

• Sensitivity analysis of nitrate concentration and deposition in Antarctica using GEOS–Chem (Hyung-Min Lee, U Colorado)

• Recent results from the NASA MSFC Lightning Nitrogen Oxides Model (LNOM) (William Koshak, NASA MSFC)

• Constraining NH3 emissions using TES NH3 observations and surface measurements (Liye Zhu, U Colorado Boulder)

• Evaluation of CMAQ NO2 predictions over the U.S. using satellite data (Havala Pye, US EPA)

Day 2, Session 3:
Carbon gases (Chair: Jim Randerson, UC Irvine)

Presentations:

• GEOS–Chem CO2 simulation: update, applications and future directions (Ray Nassar, Environment Canada)

• Anthropogenic and natural sources of ethanol from North America and implications of ethanol fuel use (Dylan Millet, Univ. Minnesota)

• NASA Carbon Monitoring Study (Kevin Bowman, JPL)

• Inverse modeling of urban and regional emission of CO in China using observations from the MOPITT instrument (Zhe Jiang, Univ. Toronto)
  

• An ensemble Kalman filter based on the 3D GEOS–Chem transport model for estimation of CH4 and CO2 surface fluxes from GOSAT XCO2 and XCH4 observations: preliminary results (Liang Feng, Univ. of Edinburgh)
  

• Analysis of CO, O3 and HCN using GEOS–Chem and ground-based FTIR observations for the Toronto Atmospheric Observatory (Cynthia Whaley, Univ. Toronto)

Posters:

• Quantifying terrestrial carbon fluxes using surface and satellite observations (Feng Deng, Univ. Toronto)

• GEOS–Chem vs ACE satellite data comparison (Gonzalo Gonzalez Abad, Univ. York)

• Influence of boreal forest taking up organic nitrogen on regional carbon budget and atmospheric CO2 (Qing Zhu, Purdue Univ.)

• European CO budget: its links with synoptic circulation and long-range transport (Anna Protonotariou, Univ. Athens)

• Monthly CO2 flux inversion with a focus over China (Hengmao Wang, Nanjing Univ.)

• Validating CO2 Fluxes and d13 CO2 in land surface model for coupling with GEOS–Chem (Kuo-Hsien Chang, Univ. of Guelph)

• Constraining North American CH4 fluxes: Integrated analysis of Satellite, Aircraft, and Ground-Based Observations (Yaping Xiao, AER)

Day 2, Session 4:
Climate-chemistry interactions (Chair: Nadine Unger, Yale U.)

Presentations:

• Effects of future climate change on air quality over East Asia (Rokjin Park, Seoul National Univ.)
  

• New directions in GEOS–Chem studies of chemistry-climate interactions (Loretta Mickley, Harvard)
  

• Impact of climate change on pollution in Africa (Ellen Dyer, Univ. Toronto)
  

• Climate effects of US aerosol sources: aerosol trends, radiative forcing, and climate response (Eric Leibensperger, Harvard)
  

• Source attribution of ozone radiative forcing using TES observations and the GEOS–Chem adjoint (Daven Henze, U Colorado Boulder)
  

• Projections of air-quality in Europe under climate change: A two way approach (Kostantinos Varotsos, Univ. Athens)

Posters:

• Regional climate model downscaling in Eastern United States (Yang Gao, Univ. Tennessee)

• Ozone climate impact from aviation (Nadine Unger, Yale)

Day 2, Session 5:
Mercury and POPs (Chair: Elsie Sunderland, Harvard)

Presentations:

• Sources and fate of mercury deposited to land (Bess Corbitt, Harvard)
  

• Fast matrix calculations of mercury fate and transport (Chris Holmes, UC Irvine)
  

• Constraining reactive gaseous mercury transformation and fate over the U.S.: combining model and measurements (Noelle Selin, MIT)
  

• Nested-grid modeling of mercury over North America (Yanxu Zhang, U Washington)
  

• Modeling mercury in the ocean and its effect on the marine boundary layer (Anne Laerke Soerensen, Aarhus Univ.)
  

• Hg(II) gas-particle partitioning and its effect on global mercury deposition (Helen Amos, Harvard)
  

• Modeling global atmospheric transport of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) with GEOS–Chem (Carey Friedman, MIT)

Day 3, Session 1:
Transport and dynamics (Chair: Jintai Lin, Peking U.)

Presentations:

• Seven slides about GEOS-5 (Steven Pawson, NASA GMAO)

• Meteorological modes of variability for PM2.5 air quality and application to evaluate GEOS–Chem simulations of PM2.5 sensitivity to climate change (Amos P.K. Tai, Harvard)

• MLS and TES data for tropical tropospheric ozone: a revealing test of vertical transport in GEOS-5 meteorological fields (Jennifer Logan, Harvard)

• Trans-Pacific transport of carbon monoxide (CO) in the upper troposphere (Jianjun Jin, JPL/Caltech)

• Impact of decadal-scale weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon on aerosol concentrations in eastern China (Jianlei Zhu, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

• Lightning and dynamics Impacts on tropospheric ozone over the Southern Tropical Indian Ocean (Li Zhang, UCLA)

• Characterizing the variability of stratosphere-troposphere exchange in the UTLS (Dave MacKenzie, Univ. Toronto)

• Transport analysis and source attribution of seasonal and interannual variability of CO in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (Junhua Liu, Harvard)

Posters:

• Impact of model errors on the variability of upper tropospheric CO and O3 in the Asian monsoon region (Dylan Jones, Univ. Toronto)

• Evaluation of GEOS mixed-layer depths and implications for GEOS–Chem aerosol simulations (Sajeev Philip, Dalhousie)

• Examining the vertical distribution of pollutants (Bonne Ford, Colorado State Univ.)

• Preliminary results of GEOS–Chem/LETKF data assimilation system (Keiya Yumimoto, MRI, Japan)

• The Weybourne atmospheric observatory — long-term composition measurements according to changing air mass origin. (Zoë Fleming, Univ. Leicester)

• Numerical challenges in global atmospheric chemistry models.  A multi-scale perspective (Mauricio Santillana, Harvard)

• The impact of cumulus congestus clouds on mid-level ozone concentrations in the tropics (Matthew Cooper, Dalhousie)

Day 3, Session 2:
Regional air quality (Chair: Yuhang Wang, Georgia Tech)

Presentations:

• Particulate air pollution in China in recent years and effectiveness of emission control (Jintai Lin, Peking University)

• Seasonal and spatial variability of surface ozone over China: contributions from background and domestic pollution (Yuxuan Wang, Tsinghua University)

• Sensitivity of China's ozone air quality to 2000-2050 global changes of climate and emissions (Lulu Shen, Tsinghua University)

• GEOS–Chem application and performance evaluation to support Policy Relevant Background ozone analyses over the US (Chris Emery, ENVIRON Int'l Corp.)

• Modeling precursors of tropospheric ozone over Australasia (Rebecca Buchholtz, Univ. Wolllongong)

• Recent study of U.S. ozone background concentrations using GEOS–Chem (Joshua Fu, Univ. Tennessee)

• 2005-2008 inter-annual and inter-season simulations of North Hemisphere by GEOS–Chem (Yun-Fat Lam, Univ. Tennessee)

Posters:

• Ensemble projections of future wildfire and its impact on air quality over the western US (Xu Yue, Harvard)

• Effect of changes in climate and emissions on future ozone and aerosol levels in China (Hui Jiang, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

• Effects of the observed climate variability on long-term regional air quality in East Asia (Jaein Jeong, Seoul National Univ.)

• How much can we understand real pollutants by using idealized tracers? (Yuanyuan Fang, Princeton)

• Trends in tropospheric NO2 columns over Europe and the effect of the economic crisis observed from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (Folkert Boersma, TU Eindhoven/KNMI)

• Multimodel estimates of the contribution of biomass Burning to air quality degradation in Southeast Asia (Miriam Marlier, Columbia Univ.)

Day 3, Session 3:
Working Group Breakout Sessions

Discussions

• Aerosols Working Group

• Carbon Gases and Organics Working Group

• Sources and Sinks Working Group

• Oxidants and Chemistry Working Group

• Chemistry–Climate Working Group

• Adjoint and Data Assimilation Working Group

• Regional Air Quality Working Group

• Hg and POPs Working Group

Day 4, Session 1:
Working group reports

• Aerosol Processes (co-chairs: Colette Heald, Jun Wang)

• Carbon Gases and Organics (co-chairs: Dylan Jones, Dylan Millet)

• Sources and Sinks (co-chairs: Randall Martin, Qiang Zhang)

• Oxidants and Chemistry (co-chairs: Mat Evans, Jingqiu Mao)

• Chemistry–Climate (co-chairs: Jeffrey Pierce, Loretta Mickley)

• Model Adjoint (co-chairs: Daven Henze, Kevin Bowman)

• Regional Air Quality (co-chairs: Yuxuan Wang, Rokjin Park)

• Hg and POPs (co-chairs: Lyatt Jaeglé, Noelle Selin)

Day 4, Session 2:
Business meeting (Chair: Daniel Jacob, Harvard)

• Development priorities report

Day 4, Session 3:
Model Clinics

• GEOS–Chem model clinic (Bob Yantosca)

• GEOS–Chem adjoint model clinic (Daven Henze)