Research

Regional Climate: Current Research

Climate, Air Quality and Wildfire

Personnel

• Eric Salathé, UW Climate Impacts Group
• Don McKenzie, UW Climate Impacts Group

Summary

In this project, we are using an ensemble modeling approach that will address the impacts and uncertainties related to the effects of global change on regional air quality in the U.S. These next steps include:

• the simulation of an ensemble of climate model forcings and regional modeling simulations with an emphasis on the IPCC range of emissions scenarios;
• expansion of the current model framework to use WRF/SMOKE/CMAQ for hemispheric simulations to avoid MOZART matchup issues and to provide better consistency between global and US emissions;
• continuation of the explicit treatment of fire, urban growth, landcover change and landcover management and exploration of their impacts on regional air quality.

Collaborators

Washington State University, National Center for Atmospheric Research, USDA Forest Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Colorado State University.

Primary Funding

US EPA

Related Publications

For more publications on climate impacts on PNW climate, please see CIG Publications.

Avise, J., J. Chen, B. Lamb, C. Wiedinmyer, A. Guenther, E.P. Salathé, and C.F. Mass. 2009. Attribution of projected changes in U.S. ozone and PM2.5 concentrations to specific global changes. Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics 9: 1111-1124.

Chen, J., J. Avise, B. Lamb, E.P. Salathé, C.F. Mass, A. Guenther, C. Wiedinmyer, J-F. Lamarque, S. O'Neill, D. McKenzie, and N. Larkin. 2009. The effects of global changes upon regional ozone pollution in the United States. Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics 9: 1125-1141.