A Modelling System for Mechanism Evaluation Using Chamber Data

Gas-phase chemical mechanisms for use in regional or global tropospheric atmospheric chemistry applications require validation against measurement data in order to assure the modeller and policy-makers that the mechanism adequately represents the chemical processes of the real atmosphere. One means of mechanism validation is through the use of smog-chamber data, in which atmospheric chemistry experiments are performed under controlled conditions, and eliminate the potential confounding effects of non-chemical processes in the ambient atmosphere. The absence of the ambient atmosphere’s confounding factors (in which some of the chemical changes may be due to advection, diffusion, emissions, deposition, convection, rainout and washout) allow a worthwhile comparison of chemical effects alone.