Assimilating GOES Observations to Improve Air Quality Simulation for the 2016 Summer Ozone Episode

Since clouds can greatly affect photolysis rates for chemical species by their impacts on incoming solar radiation, having an accurate estimate of cloud properties is critical for air quality numerical simulations. In this study, a technique which assimilates Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-derived cloud fields developed by White et al. (2018) was implemented in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) simulation to improve the reliability of estimated photolysis rates and the distribution of chemical species. The simulation was carried out on a 12-km grid domain to study the 2016 summer ozone episode over the contiguous United States (CONUS). Preliminary results from this study will be presented.