Reducing Long‐Standing Surface Ozone Overestimation in Earth System Modeling by High‐Resolution Simulation and Dry Deposition Improvement
Abstract The overestimation of surface ozone concentration in low‐resolution global atmospheric chemistry and climate models has been a long‐standing issue. We first update the ozone dry deposition scheme in both high‐ (0.25°) and low‐resolution (1°) Community Earth System Model (CESM) version 1.3 runs, by adding the effects of leaf area index and correcting the sunlit and shaded fractions of stomatal resistances. With this update, 5‐year‐long summer simulations (2015–2019) using the low‐resolution CESM still exhibit substantial ozone overestimation (by 6.0–16.2 ppbv) over the U.S., Europe, eastern China, and ozone pollution hotspots. The ozone dry deposition scheme is further improved by adjusting the leaf cuticle conductance, reducing the mean ozone bias by 19%, and increasing the model resolution further reduces the ozone overestimation by 43%. We elucidate the mechanism by which model grid spacing influences simulated ozone, revealing distinctive pathways in urban versus rural areas. In rural areas, grid spacing mainly affects daytime ozone levels, where additional NO x emissions from nearby urban areas result in an ozone boost and overestimation in low‐resolution simulations. In contrast, over urban areas, daytime ozone overestimation follows a similar mechanism due to the influence of volatile organic compounds from surrounding rural areas. However, nighttime ozone overestimation is closely linked to weakened NO titration owing to the redistribution of urban NO x to rural areas. Additionally, stratosphere‐troposphere exchange may also contribute to reducing ozone bias in high‐resolution simulations, warranting further investigation. This optimized high‐resolution CESM may enhance understanding of ozone formation mechanisms, sources, and changes in a warming climate.
Authors
- Wenbin Kou
- Jean‐François Lamarque (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4225-5074)
- Guangxing Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5443-3915)
- Bin Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8438-9188)
- Zhao Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5259-4504)
- Xiaohong Yao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2960-0793)
- Chun Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4693-7213)
- Oliver Wild (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6227-7035)
- Jingshan Pan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0968-0658)
- Yuanhong Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5134-1257)
- Hong Liao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6628-1798)
- Haipeng Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2777-2724)
- Huiwang Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4274-0811)
- Wenxuan Cheng
- Yang Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6444-6544)
- Ulrich Pöschl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1412-3557)
- Alex Guenther (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6283-8288)
- Haitian Lu
- Guy Pierre Brasseur (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6794-9497)
- Hang Su (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3975-9658)
- Andrea Pozzer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2440-6104)
- Yafang Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4912-9879)
- Jian Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5076-6421)
- Lai-Yung Ruby Leung (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3221-9467)
- Binglin Qu
- Shuxiao Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9727-1963)
- Junlei Meng
- Guangliang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1451-7150)
- Xin Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0922-5014)
- Xiuwen Guo
- Lixin Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7099-5937)
- Junxi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3221-5271)
- Leiming Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6849-8579)
- Shaoqing Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6569-9842)
- Yubing Wu
- Deliang Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0288-5618)
- Chenlin Li
Institutions
- NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Environment and Climate Change Canada (CA)
- Harvard University (US)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (US)
- Cyprus Institute (CY)
- Qilu University of Technology (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (CN)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (DE)
- Zhejiang Lab (CN)
- State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (CN)
- Irvine University (US)
- Shandong Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Institute of Atmospheric Physics (CN)
- National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi (CN)
- Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (DE)
- Ocean University of China (CN)
- Lancaster University (GB)
- University of Gothenburg (SE)
- Nanjing University (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
- Published
- 2025-03-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2023ms004192
- Citations
- 12
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 13.26
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China