Li (Kate) Zhang authored and/or contributed to the following articles/publications.
The global Flow-following finite-volume Icosahedral Model (FIM), which was developed in the Global Systems Laboratory of NOAA/ESRL, has been coupled inline with aerosol and gas-phase chemistry schemes of different complexity using the chemistry and aerosol packages from WRF-Chem v3.7, named as FIM-Chem v1. The three chemistry schemes include 1) ...
Institutions National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory - ESRL
Global Estimates and Long-Term Trends of Fine Particulate Matter Concentrations (1998–2018)
Exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is a leading risk factor for mortality. We develop global estimates of annual PM2.5 concentrations and trends for 1998–2018 using advances in satellite observations, chemical transport modeling, and ground-based monitoring. Aerosol optical depths (AODs) from advanced satellite products includin...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
The Climate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory (CLARREO) satellite mission observes hyperspectral Earth reflected solar (RS) and emitted infrared radiance (IR). Such measurements span an additional dimension on spectrally dependent scattering and absorption of dust, the critical signals for particle size. Through a suite of observati...
Institutions Earth System Research Laboratory - ESRL National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
What factors control the trend of increasing AAOD over the United States in the last decade?
We examine the spatial and temporal trends of absorbing aerosol optical depth (AAOD) in the last decade over the United States (U.S.) observed by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). Monthly average OMI AAOD has increased over broad areas of the central U.S. from 2005 to 2015, by up to a factor of 4 in some grid cells (~60 km resolution). The ...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
Nitrous acid (HONO) and nitryl chloride (ClNO2) – through their photolysis – can have profound effects on the nitrogen cycle and oxidation capacity of the lower troposphere. Previous numerical studies have separately considered and investigated the sources/processes of these compounds and their roles in the fate of reactive nitrogen and the prod...
Institution National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA
Background error statistics for aerosol variables from WRF/Chem predictions in Southern California
Background error covariance (BEC) is crucial in data assimilation. This paper addresses the multivariate BEC associated with black carbon, organic carbon, nitrates, sulfates, and other constituents of aerosol species. These aerosol species are modeled and predicted using the Model for Simulating Aerosol Interactions and Chemistry scheme (MOSAIC)...
Accurate estimates of the emissions and distribution of black carbon (BC) in the region referred to here as Southeastern Asia (70–150° E, 11° S–55° N) are critical to studies of the atmospheric environment and climate change. Analysis of modeled BC concentrations compared to in situ observations indicates levels are underestimated over most of S...
The uptake of dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5) on aerosol surfaces and the subsequent production of nitryl chloride (ClNO2) can have a significant impact on the oxidising capability and thus on secondary pollutants such as ozone. The range of such an impact, however, has not been well quantified in different geographical regions. In this study, we ap...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s National Weather Service (NWS) is on its way to deploying various operational prediction applications using the Unified Forecast System (https://ufscommunity.org/, last access: 18 June 2022), a community-based coupled, comprehensive Earth modeling system. An aerosol model component dev...
Institutions Earth System Research Laboratory - ESRL National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA