Project Ideas

Hello Class:

This memo is specifically for those who are taking the course for credit. Since I didn't want to change my mail alias or differentiate among for credit, serious auditors and day trippers, I am sending it to everybody.

Class Project Suggestions, Hints and Guidance.

1. Add some version of a multiple scattering treatment to our direct beam radiation calculation. This should include albedo, Rayleigh scattering and possibly a treatment of aerosol scattering. The principal purpose of the project would be to explore the impact of this improved radiation code on ozone chemistry.
2. Test a range of chemical solvers on a diurnal version of the chemical model. This would probably be most interesting in the troposphere and most challenging if some version on NMHC chemistry is included. The primary issues would be speed and ACCURACY, particularly around sunrise and sunset.
3. Implement an Antarctic ozone hole heterogeneous chemistry and test the ability of chemistry without transport to simulate the magnitude and speed of the ozone hole formation. This should also include solar angle variation since you will want to model the solar sunrise over Antarctica.
4. Implement a heterogeneous ozone chemistry for the lower stratosphere, based on sulfate aerosol surface reactions, that occurs during the winter and spring at 50N-60N and in the tropics of the lower stratosphere. The goal would be determine the impact of sufate aerosol and the dependence of ozone loss on amount of sulfate aerosol for these 2 regions.
5. Add 1-D vertical eddy diffusion to the chemical model. The goal would be to simulate a realistic natural NOy distribution involving transporting N2O from the surface and HNO3 into the troposphere, and to simulate realistic tropical and midlatitude ozone profiles.
6. Add isoprene chemistry to the tropospheric portion of your chemical code and simulate its impact on ozone as a function of season, altitude and NOx level.
7. Add NMHC pollution chemistry to the tropospheric portion of your chemical code and do the same study as for 6. 7. and 6. might want to make a joint presentation and compare their respective results for the natural and polluted NMHC world.
8. Add heterogeneous/surface chemistry to the tropospheric chemistry model and determine its impact on ozone and nitrogen chemistry. The NOy chemistry would also have to be expanded. This impact of season, latitude and altitude should all be considered.
9. Add solution/water-drop chemistry to your tropospheric chemical model and determine its impact on either SOx or Ox chemistry. Again you would consider the impact of season, latitude and altitude.

Chip Levy