AERO-MAP: a data compilation and modeling approach to understand spatial variability in fine- and coarse-mode aerosol composition

Aerosol particles are an important part of the Earth climate system, and their concentrations are spatially and temporally heterogeneous, as well as being variable in size and composition. Particles can interact with incoming solar radiation and outgoing longwave radiation, change cloud properties, affect photochemistry, impact surface air quality, change the albedo of snow and ice, and modulate carbon dioxide uptake by the land and ocean. High particulate matter concentrations at the surface represent an important public health hazard. There are substantial data sets describing aerosol particles in the literature or in public health databases, but they have not been compiled for easy use by the climate and air quality modeling community. Here, we present a new compilation of PM2:5 and PM10 surface observations, including measurements of aerosol composition, focusing on the spatial variability across different observational stations. Climate modelers are constantly looking for multiple independent lines of evidence to verify their models, and in situ surface concentration measurements, taken at the level of human settlement, present a valuable source of information about aerosols and their human impacts complementarily to the column averages or integrals often retrieved from satellites. We demonstrate a method for comparing the data sets to outputs from global climate models that are the basis for projections of future climate and large-scale aerosol transport patterns that influence local air quality. Annual trends and seasonal cycles are discussed briefly and are included in the compilation. Overall, most of the planet or even the land fraction does not have sufficient observations of surface concentrations - and, especially, particle composition - to characterize and understand the current distribution of particles. Climate models without ammonium nitrate aerosols omit _10% of the globally averaged surface concentration of aerosol particles in both PM2:5 and PM10 size fractions, with up to 50% of the surface concentrations not being included in some regions. In these regions, climate model aerosol forcing projections are likely to be incorrect as they do not include important trends in short-lived climate forcers.

This research has been supported by the Biological and Environmental Research program (grant no. DOE-SC0006791), the Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile and FONDECYT (grant no. 1231682), the Texas Air Research Center and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, grant nos. 2017-17047-0 and 2023/04358-9), NSF (grant no. 2020673), European Regional Development Fund via the project PANhellenic infrastructure for Atmospheric Composition and climatE chAnge (PANACEA; grant no. MIS 5021516), the International Network to study Deposition and Atmospheric composition in Africa (INDAAF) program, MEXT/JSPS KAKENHI (grant nos. JP19H05699, JP19KK0265, JP20H00196, JP22H03722, JP22F22092, JP23H00515, JP23H00523, JP23K18519, JP23K24976, and JP24H02225), the MEXT Arctic Challenge for Sustainability Phase II (ArCS II; grant no. JPMXD1420318865) project, the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund 2–2301 (grant no. JPMEERF20232001) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency, the Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 821/22), the NASA Modeling, Analysis, and Prediction Program, and FCT/MCTES (grant no. UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020+LA/P/0094/2020).

Peer reviewed