Modelling UK air quality for AQMEII2 with the online forecast model AQUM

Abstract

AQUM is an online air quality modelling system which is used to provide the operational Met Office air quality forecast for the UK. The standard model configuration runs at a resolution of 12 km and covers a domain including the UK and part of Western Europe. The model is routinely verified against near-real-time surface pollutant measurements from the UK Automatic Urban and Rural Network (AURN) to provide a continuous evaluation of model performance. We have developed a new configuration of AQUM to run on the AQMEII (Air Quality Modelling Evaluation International Initiative) Phase 2 European domain at a resolution of 22 km, using the prescribed AQMEII emission datasets. This latter dataset contains wildfire emissions which are not included in the standard AQUM emissions. An initial analysis is conducted to compare the emissions over the UK used as input to both models. Model simulations for 2010 from the AQUM standard and AQMEII configurations are compared to AURN surface observations and an analysis of the effect of the differing model domain, resolution and emissions is made. In 2010 Russian wildfires constituted a significant additional source of pollutants in Eastern Europe; we evaluate the impact of these wildfire emissions on UK air quality.