Assessment of The Impacts of Black Carbon Emissions On Urban and Regional Air Quality and Climate: Mexico Case Study

Molina Center For Strategic Studies In Energy & The Environment, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project focuses on the study of black carbon (BC) in the atmosphere, one of the major short-lived climate pollutants. Comprehensive multi-scale modeling studies will be conducted to assess the climate impacts of BC on urban and regional scales. Modeling studies will be applied to the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) and evaluated using ground-, aircraft- and satellite-based measurements obtained during the NSF-sponsored 2006 MILAGRO (Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations) Campaign in the MCMA. The objectives of the research are to: (1) evaluate the radiative impacts of BC only; (2) assess the net radiative effects of BC and co-emitted species; (3) apportion the regional radiative impact of major BC emission sources; and (4) investigate the influences of climate change on air quality and on the radiative impact of BC. The WRF-Chem model will be driven by both the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis data and the NASA GISS-E2-R model output, and chemical initial and boundary conditions will be interpolated from the global chemical transport model MOZART-4 and GISS outputs.