Modelling organic aerosol in europe: Application of the CAMx model with a volatility basis set within the eurodelta III exercise

Abstract

In the framework of EURODELTAIII model inter-comparison exercise (Bessagnet et al. 2014), we performed preliminary tests with a volatility basis set (VBS) scheme in the CAMx model to predict the fine organic aerosol concentrations in Europe during one of the EMEP measurement campaigns (February–March 2009). In addition to the traditional (no VBS) approach for organic aerosol modelling, two different assumptions regarding the volatility distribution of primary organic particles were simulated and results compared against aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements. For the period studied in this work, using the volatility proposed by Robinson et al. (2007) decreased OA concentrations while volatility distribution according to Tsimpidi et al. (2010), Shrivastava et al. (2011) improved the results by about 27 %.