Application of adjoint data assimilation method to atmospheric aerosol transport problems (Q1798442)

Summary: We propose combining the adjoint assimilation method with characteristic finite difference scheme (CFD) to solve the aerosol transport problems, which can predict the distribution of atmospheric aerosols efficiently by using large time steps. Firstly, the characteristic finite difference scheme (CFD) is tested to compute the Gaussian hump using large time step sizes and is compared with the first-order upwind scheme (US1) using small time steps; the US1 method gets \(E_2\) error of 0.2887 using \(\Delta t = 1 / 450\), while CFD method gets a much smaller \(E_2\) of 0.2280 using a much larger time step \(\Delta t = 1 / 45\). Then, the initial distribution of \(\mathrm{PM}_{2.5}\) concentration is inverted by the adjoint assimilation method with CFD and US1. The adjoint assimilation method with CFD gets better accuracy than adjoint assimilation method with US1 while adjoint assimilation method with CFD costs much less computational time. Further, a real case of \(\mathrm {PM}_{2.5}\) concentration distribution in China during the APEC 2014 is simulated by using adjoint assimilation method with CFD. The simulation results are in good agreement with the observed values. The adjoint assimilation method with CFD can solve large scale aerosol transport problem efficiently.