Modeling the distribution of ammonia across Europe including bi-directional surface-atmosphere exchange.

A large shortcoming of current chemistry transport models for simulating the fate of ammonia in the atmosphere is the lack of a description of the bi-directional surfaceatmosphere exchange. In this paper, results of an update of the dry deposition module DEPAC in the LOTOS-EUROS model are discussed. It is shown that with the new description, which includes bi-directional surface-atmosphere exchange, the modeled ammonia concentrations increase almost everywhere, in particular in agricultural source areas. The reason is that by using a compensation point the ammonia life time and transport distance is increased. As a consequence, deposition of ammonia and ammonium decreases in agricultural source areas, while it increases in large nature areas and remote regions especially in Southern Scandinavia. The inclusion of a compensation point for water reduces the dry deposition over sea and allows reproducing the observed marine background concentrations at coastal locations to a better extend. A comparison with measurements shows that the model results better represent the measured ammonia concentrations. The concentrations in nature areas are slightly overestimated, while the concentrations in agricultural source areas are still underestimated. Although the introduction of the compensation point improves the model performance, the modeling of ammonia remains challenging. Important aspects are emission patterns in space and time as well as a proper approach to deal with the high concentration gradients in relation to model resolution. In short, the inclusion of a bi-directional surface atmosphere exchange is a significant step forward for modeling ammonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]