Impact of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Height on the Concentration of Chemical Species in Numerical Model Simulations

Abstract. The top of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) serves as a boundary separating turbulent air in the ABL and free atmosphere in the troposphere. The increase/decrease of the ABL height (ABL-H) can dilute or concentrate chemical species in the ABL. In numerical simulations the ABL-H is involved in computing the vertical diffusivity and the counter-gradient term under the unstable condition in ABL parameterization schemes. Therefore, uncertainties in the ABL-H due to the uncertainties in meteorological fields and different definitions can affect the numerical predictions of the concentration of chemical species. To understand the impacts, a 1-D diffusion model with the K-profile scheme and an 3-D air quality forecast model with the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE)-based scheme are employed to examine the sensitivities of diffusion coefficient,counter-gradient term and tracer's concentration to the ABL-H analytically and numerically. Sensitivity tests with the 1-D model show that the increase/decrease ofthe ABL-H leads to the decrease/increase of concentration of tracers under both stable and unstable conditions due to the increase/decrease of the volume of air within the ABL. Under the unstable condition, the increase/decrease of the ABL-H also enhances/weakens the vertical diffusivity, and leads to the decrease/increase of the concentration of tracers for negative/positive vertical gradient of tracer. The impact of the ABL-H through the counter-gradient term is much smaller than the impact through changing the volume of trace and vertical diffusivity in the ABL. Sensitivity tests with the 3-D numerical model with the TKE scheme show increase/decrease of the ABL-H leads to strong/weak vertical diffusivity, but hasvery small impact of the ABL-H on the concentrations of pollutants over urban centers for the ABL-Hs which is defined based on the Richardson number and temperature.