Numerical Simulation of the Transport of Chemically Reactive Species under Land- and Sea-Breeze Circulations

Abstract

The characteristics of the transport of chemically reactive species under land- and sea-breeze (LSB) circulations are investigated using a detailed transport/chemistry model, which includes 84 gas-phase and 10 heterogeneous chemical reactions. Model applications are presented which use flow fields derived from a modified version of the Asai and Mitsumoto model and eddy diffusivity profiles predicted by the boundary-layer model of Yamada and Mellor as inputs. The effects of nonprecipitating clouds associated with the LSB circulation on the calculated concentration fields are also studied. Mass transports by updrafts and counterflows associated with the LSB circulation and diurnally varying eddy diffusion processes show transitions between double and single maxima within a 24-hour cycle. The vertical profiles of some secondary pollutants such as O3 generally agree with field observations. Clouds are also shown to affect the predicted distributions of both the soluble and less soluble species by reducing the below-cloud photon flux, by removing soluble species from the air at cloud level, and/or by in-cloud production processes. Deposition processes reduce the species concentrations near the surface, and these effects propagate upward through mass transport processes. However, the qualitative characteristic vertical concentration profiles are similar to the cases where deposition is not included. Finally, the results demonstrate the effectiveness of the divergence correction method used in the numerical calculations in eliminating the fictitious production and consumption reactions introduced by nonzero divergence wind fields.