Development of a Dust Source Map for WRF-Chem Model Based on MODIS NDVI

We present the development of a physically-based dust source map for GOCART-AFWA module in WRF-Chem model. The new parameterization is based on MODIS-NDVI and an updated emission strength computed every 15 days from latest satellite observations. Modeling simulations period April–May 2017 over Mediterranean, north Africa, Middle East are compared with observations AOD at 31 AERONET stations. capable reproducing sources finer detail. overall performance model improved, especially stronger episodes > 0.25. For this threshold BIAS decreases −0.20 to −0.02, RMSE 0.38 0.30, Correlation Coefficient improves 0.21 0.47, fractional gross error (FGE) 0.62 0.40, mean bias (MFB) −0.49 −0.08. Similar improvement also found lower thresholds (>0.0 >0.1), stations Europe, Sahel, East, Arabian Peninsula, which mostly affected by transport during experimental period. An overprediction AOD, original dust-source scheme, some Sahara desert, Atlantic Ocean, Iberian Peninsula. In total, 124 out 170 statistical scores that calculated indicate performance.