Validation and adaptation of WRF-Chem numerical model to simulate CO2 transport in Saint-Petersburg

Alteration of the Earth's radiation balance due to the rise of the content of the main anthropogenic greenhouse gas СО2 in the atmosphere leads to the changes of the planet's climate. It is known that megacities contribute approximately 70% to the total anthropogenic CO2 emissions playing a critical role in the climate changes. Several methods of emission estimation are being developed to control commitments undertaken by different countries on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One of such methods - inverse modelling - combines accurate observations of the increase of gas` content, a priori anthropogenic emissions and numerical modelling of atmospheric transport to define gas` sources and correct emission data used in the simulation. Several studies demonstrated that the inverse modelling of CO₂ anthropogenic emissions highly depends on the modelling of CO₂ transport in the atmosphere. Therefore a careful validation of such models must be carried out before CO₂ emissions estimation by the inverse modelling. In the current research we studied capabilities of numerical weather prediction and chemistry dynamic model WRF-Chem to simulate CO₂ transport on the territory of Saint-Petersburg (Russia) using observations of near-ground and total CO₂ content.