4.4.2 The OxComp Workshop
In the SAR, the chapter on atmospheric chemistry included two modelling studies:
PhotoComp (comparison of ozone photochemistry in box models) and Delta-CH4
(methane feedbacks in 2-D and 3-D tropospheric chemistry models). These model
studies established standard model tests for participation in IPCC. They resulted
in a consensus regarding the CH4 feedback and identified the importance
(and lack of uniform treatment) of NMHC chemistry on tropospheric O3
production. This synthesis allowed for the SAR to use the CH4-lifetime
feedback and a simple estimate of tropospheric O3 increase due solely
to CH4. The SAR noted that individual CTMs had calculated an impact
of changing NOx and CO emissions on global OH and CH4
abundances, but that a consensus on predicting future changes in O3
and OH did not exist.
Since 1995, considerable research has gone into the development and validation
of tropospheric CTMs. The IPCC Special Report on Aviation and the Global Atmosphere
(Derwent and Friedl, 1999) used a wide range of global CTMs to predict the enhancement
of tropospheric O3 due to aircraft NOx emissions. The
results were surprisingly robust, not only for the hemispheric mean O3
increase, but also for the increase in global mean OH reported as a decrease
in the CH4 lifetime. The current state-of-modelling in global tropospheric
chemistry has advanced since PhotoComp and Delta-CH4 in the SAR and
now includes as standard a three-dimensional synoptic meteorology and treatment
of non-methane hydrocarbon chemistry. A survey of recent CTM-based publications
on the tropospheric O3 budget, collected for this report, is discussed
in Section 4.5.
This assessment, building on these developments, organised a workshop to compare
CTM results for a few, well-constrained atmospheric simulations. An open invitation,
sent out in March 1999 to research groups involved in 3-D global tropospheric
chemistry modelling, invited participation in this report’s assessment
of change in tropospheric oxidative state through a model intercomparison and
workshop (OxComp). This workshop is an IPCC-focused follow-on to the Global
Integration and Modelling (GIM) study (Kanakidou et al., 1999). The infrastructure
for OxComp (ftp site, database, graphics, and scientific support) was provided
by the University of Oslo group, and the workshop meeting in July 1999 was hosted
by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI) Hamburg. Participating models
are described by publications in peer-reviewed literature as summarised in Table
4.10; all include 3-D global tropospheric chemistry including NMHC; and
assessment results are based on models returning a sufficient number of OxComp
cases. The two goals of OxComp are (i) to build a consensus on current modelling
capability to predict changes in tropospheric OH and O3 and (ii)
to develop a useful parametrization to calculate the greenhouse gases (including
tropospheric O3 but not CO2) using the IPCC emissions
scenarios.
Table 4.10: Chemistry-Transport Models (CTM) contributing
to the OxComp evaluation of predicting tropospheric O3 and OH. |
|
CTM |
Institute |
Contributing authors |
References |
|
GISS |
GISS |
Shindell /Grenfell |
Hansen et al. (1997b) |
HGEO |
Harvard U. |
Bey / Jacob |
Bey et al. (1999) |
HGIS |
Harvard U. |
Mickley / Jacob |
Mickley et al. (1999) |
IASB |
IAS/Belg. |
Mülller |
Müller and Brasseur (1995, 1999) |
KNMI |
KNMI/Utrecht |
van Weele |
Jeuken et al. (1999), Houweling et al. (2000) |
MOZ1 |
NCAR/CNRS |
Hauglustaine / Brasseur |
Brasseur et al. (1998b), Hauglustaine et al. (1998) |
MOZ2 |
NCAR |
Horowitz/ Brasseur |
Brasseur et al. (1998b), Hauglustaine et al. (1998) |
MPIC |
MPI/Chem |
Kuhlmann / Lawrence |
Crutzen et al. (1999), Lawrence et al. (1999) |
UCI |
UC Irvine |
Wild |
Hannegan et al. (1998), Wild and Prather (2000) |
UIO |
U. Oslo |
Berntsen |
Berntsen and Isaksen (1997), Fuglestvedt et al. (1999) |
UIO2 |
U. Oslo |
Sundet |
Sundet (1997) |
UKMO |
UK Met Office |
Stevenson |
Collins et al. (1997), Johnson et al. (1999) |
ULAQ |
U. L. Aquila |
Pitari |
Pitari et al. (1997) |
UCAM |
U. Cambridge |
Plantevin /Johnson |
Law et al. (1998, 2000) (TOMCAT) |
|
|