Application of the WRF-chem model for air pollution forecasting in Poland

Abstract

This paper presents the first step in the development of a forecasting system for air pollution concentrations for the south-west region of Poland. We simulated a winter (January) and a summer (July) period of 2014 with WRF-Chem. The focus has been on studying different chemical options during the two simulation periods, therefore keeping emissions constant, except for natural sources. The authors have found that different model setups increase model performance for gases and particulate matter and that there is no clear dependence between forecast lead time and model performance.