The radiative impact of dust storms on biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) emission in East Asia using WRF-Chem

Biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) play a significant role in regional and global atmospheric chemistry, carbon cycles, and climate. The high sensitivity of BVOC emission to vegetation temperature makes variation in downward solar radiation due to dust storms important in downwind areas, such as East China, Korean Peninsula, and Japan. In this study, WRF-Chem is used to simulate the dust emission, transport and its radiation forcing, and then online MEGAN calculates BVOC emission based on the simulated radiation forcing. The simulation period covers the spring season in 2011 during which there are several severe dust storms starting from Gobi Desert and Northeastern China. The MISR AOD and ARM surface radiation data sets were used to evaluate WRF-Chem's performance in dust and radiation simulation. Finally the simulated BVOC emission was compared with the surface observation which was collected in South Korea during the simulation period. Finally, based on the results both from model and observation, we try to get basic understanding of to what extent the dust storms can influence the BVOC emission in East Asia.