Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Atmospheric Environment
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atmosenv

The effect of SRTM and Corine Land Cover data on calculated gas and
PM10 concentrations in WRF-Chem
A. De Meij a, *, E. Bossioli b, C. Penard a, J.F. Vinuesa a, I. Price a
a
b

Noveltis, Sustainable Development, 153, Rue du Lac, F-31670 Labege, France

National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Department of Physics, Division of Environmental Physics and Meteorology, Greece

h i g h l i g h t s

Differences are found in the land cover classes between Corine and USGS data sets.

T2 and winds are different between WRF-Chem with SRTM Corine LC and with USGS.

SH, LH and PBLs are different between WRF-Chem with SRTM Corine LC and USGS.

WRF-Chem with SRTM Corine LC calculates higher gas concentrations than with USGS.

WRF-Chem with SRTM Corine LC calculates higher PM10 concentrations than with USGS.

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 29 July 2014
Received in revised form
12 November 2014
Accepted 14 November 2014
Available online 15 November 2014

The goal of this study is to investigate the impact of the high resolution Shuttle Radar Topography
Mission (SRTM) 90 m  90 m topography data, together with the 100 m  100 m resolution Corine Land
Cover 2006 on the simulated gas and particulate matter (PM10) concentrations by WRF-Chem. We
focused our analysis on the well-known highly urbanized region of the Po Valley. Large differences are
found in the geographical distribution of the land cover classes between Corine Land Cover and 30 arc
seconds USGS. The simulation with the SRTM and Corine Land Cover increases modelled temperature at
2 m and reduces wind speeds due to more friction at the surface induced by the Corine Land Cover.
Latent and sensible heat uxes show large differences between the two simulations and the related
boundary layer development and depth. The simulation with the SRTM and Corine Land Cover favours
the precipitation amount over a large of part the Alps and follows the pattern of the difference in
topography between the two topography data sets. In term of air quality indicators, impacts are also large
and geographical dependent. Monthly average of CO, NO and SO2 concentrations over a large part of the
Po Valley are higher when using Corine Land Cover, up to ~20, ~50 and ~55%, respectively. With respect
to PM10, the impacts are also geographical dependent. Over the Po valley area, calculated PM10 concentrations are in general higher using Corine Land Cover (up to 6.7 ug/m3 [~26%] westerly of Milan)
while differences are smaller over the Alps (~0.25ug/m3 [~20%]). Although the scope of this work is not to
evaluate the model performance in calculated meteorological parameters and gas and PM10 concentrations, calculated values by the simulation with SRTM and Corine Land Cover show a better agreement
with the observations than the simulation with the USGS topography and land cover data sets. A
quantitative comparison between modelled and observed monthly average PM10 concentrations shows
that both simulations underestimate the observed PM10 concentrations by a factor ~4. The agreement is
much better during episodes for the simulation with the SRTM and Corine Land Cover. For CO, SO2 and
NOx, the modelled monthly mean concentrations are similar for the two simulations. Larger differences
are found during some episodes and regions with the SRTM and Corine LC simulation being in better
agreement with the observations.
2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
WRF-Chem
Corine Land Cover
SRTM
USGS Land Cover

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: alexander.demeij@noveltis.fr (A. De Meij).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.11.033
1352-2310/ 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

178

A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

1. Introduction
A common problem in air quality modelling is the underestimation of simulated particulate matter (PM) concentrations by air
chemistry transport models (ACTMs). Many model studies (Tsyro,
2003; De Meij et al., 2007; Vautard et al., 2007; Stern et al., 2008;
De Meij et al., 2008; De Meij et al., 2009; Vautard et al., 2009),
and coordinated modelling activities such as Citydelta [http://aqm.
jrc.ec.europa.eu/citydelta/], AEROCOM [http://aerocom.met.no/
aerocomhome.html] and Eurodelta [http://aqm.jrc.ec.europa.eu/
eurodelta/] showed that ACTMs in general underestimate
observed PM concentrations over Europe. The City Delta exercise
(http://aqm.jrc.ec.europa.eu/citydelta/, Cuvelier et al., 2006; Thunis
et al., 2007; Vautard et al., 2006) showed that simulated PM concentrations are underestimated by the ACTMs for Milan (Italy),
especially for winter time episodes. There are several reasons for
the underestimation of PM10 e.g. unaccounted sources of emissions, vertical and temporal distribution of the emissions and that
the Po Valley is characterized by very low wind speeds and frequent
weak circulation conditions. These stagnant meteorological conditions are difcult to simulate by prognostic and diagnostic
models over complex areas (Dosio et al., 2002; Minguzzi et al.,
2005; Carvalho et al., 2006; Stern et al., 2008; De Meij et al.,
2009; Ritter et al., 2013), which contribute to the underestimation of simulated PM concentrations.
Aerosol formation processes are known to be non-linear
dependent on gas concentrations (West et al., 1998) and meteorological variables (Haywood and Ramaswamy, 1998). Recent studies
have shown the impact of meteorological parameters on gas and
aerosol calculated concentrations by altering, for example the
planetary boundary layer scheme, micro-physics scheme, land
surface physic schemes (De Meij et al., 2009; Appel et al., 2010;


Zabkar
et al., 2013; Forkel et al., 2014).
A recent study by De Meij and Vinuesa (2014) showed the
impact of the high resolution (100  100 m) Corine Land Cover on
calculated meteorological parameters (wind speed, temperature
and precipitation) during a winter and a summer period, by
comparing with a simulation using the standard 30-arc seconds
(~1  1 km) USGS Land Cover and observations. They found large
differences in the fraction of urban built-up area between the
Corine Land Cover and USGS Land Cover for the Lombardi province
(Italy), which impacted the calculated meteorological parameters.
The simulation with the Corine Land Cover resulted in lower wind
speeds and showed a better agreement with the observations. The
accuracy of land-use classications in meteorological modelling
affects some of the meteorological parameters. Urban built-up
areas are more likely to trap solar radiation and reduce wind
speeds than open rural areas, which may impact the temperatures,
buoyancy and wind directions and wind speeds. A good estimate of
meteorological variables such as wind speed is therefore crucial for
calculating gas and aerosol impacts on air quality and climate
change, and evaluating coherent reduction strategies.
To our knowledge the impact of topography and Corine Land
Cover in WRF-Chem on calculated aerosol (precursor) concentrations have not yet been reported.
In this study, we investigate the impact of the high resolution
Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 90  90 m topography
data (Farr et al., 2007; Jarvis et al., 2008) together with the
100  100 m resolution Corine Land Cover 2006 (Heymann et al.,
1994; Bttner et al., 1998, 2002) on the simulated gas and particulate matter (PM10) concentrations by WRF-Chem. In order to
investigate the impact of the SRTM and Corine Land Cover we
compare the simulated concentrations with the results of the WRFChem simulation using the standard 30-arc seconds United States
Geological Survey (USGS) Land Cover and topography (Anderson

et al., 1976) and with observations of the ARPA network. We

focus on the southern region of the Alps, more specically the
Lombardy region, because (i) De Meij and Vinuesa (2014) used this
area to study the impact of Corine Land Cover on meteorological
parameters, (ii) this area showed to be problematic in previous
aerosol modelling studies (iii) the Po valley is one of the most
polluted, industrialized and densely populated areas in Europe and
(iv) this area shows a large diversity in land cover (LC). It contains
several big lakes, mountains and the region is highly populated
(ISTAT, 2012). More details about WRF-Chem and Corine Land
Cover are given in Section 2.

2. Methodology
The WRF model is used over a part of the Italian/Swiss Alps and
the Po Valley area (northern Italy) to study the impact of high
resolution SRTM topography and Corine Land Cover on the simulated gas and PM10 concentrations. More details regarding WRFChem are given in Section 2.1. WRF-Chem operates on the
10  10 km and 2  2 km resolution. Fig. 1 presents the
geographical position of the model grid domains The
10 km  10 km domain (approximately 1100 km  950 km centred
at 8.603 longitude and 45.916 latitude) covers the Eastern part of
France, southern part of Germany, Switzerland, a large part of Italy
including a part of the Adriatic Sea and Mediterranean Sea. Domain
2 (approximately 300 km  200 km) covers a part of the Po Valley
in North Italy and the Southern part of Switzerland.
The two simulations were performed with no nudging to the
observations of the meteorological stations. The rst simulation
uses the SRTM and Corine Land Cover data for January 2010. The
second simulation uses the standard USGS 30-arc seconds land-use
data (~1  1 km) and topography data for the same period. The
simulation with SRTM and Corine Land Cover is further denoted as
WRF_CLC and the simulation with 30-arc seconds is further
denoted as WRF_USGS. For the simulations, a spin-up time of four
days is applied in order to initialize the model. WRF uses meteorological initial conditions and lateral boundary conditions from 6 h
analyses from the National Center for Environmental Protection
(NCEP; Kalnay et al., 1996), and the Climate Forecast System
Reanalysis (CFSR; Saha et al., 2010).
We start our study by evaluating the meteorological parameters
(temperature, wind speed and precipitation) calculated by
WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS. For more details we refer to De Meij and
Vinuesa (2014). Then we evaluate the calculated gas concentrations
of CO, SO2 and NOx and PM10 concentrations of both simulations.
Furthermore, we analyse the monthly mean calculated values of
the meteorological parameters and chemical species, together with
a more detailed evaluation of some selected episodes. For the
evaluation of the meteorological parameters and gas and PM10
concentrations we use observations of the Agenzia Regionale per la
Protezione dell' Ambiente (ARPA) network (www.arpalombardia.
it). An overview of the stations used and their geographical location is given in Table 1a. Through this website the following parameters can be downloaded: precipitation, temperature,
atmospheric pressure, wind speed and wind direction, relative
humidity, global irradiation and net irradiation. The statistical
analysis of the simulated meteorological values and gas concentrations in this work is based on hourly values. For PM10 that
analysis is based on daily mean concentrations. Depending on the
amount of observations available, the number of observedmodelled pairs differ from one station to the other.
The SRTM ew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which obtained terrain elevation data during an eleven day mission in
February of 2000 to generate the high-resolution (~90 m) digital

A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

179

Fig. 1. Google Earth view of the two domains (D1 10 km  10 km, D2 2 km  2 km).

topographic database of Earth. High resolution SRTM data can be

found at: http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org/SELECTION/inputCoord.asp.
The USGS land-use dataset was created in 1993, since then urban areas have changed dramatically for some regions in Europe.
The Corine Land Cover is a European Commission program, started
in 1985 by the European Commission DG Environment, intended to
provide consistent, localized geographical information on the land
cover of the Member States of the European Community. The Corine Land Cover is recognised by decision-makers as an essential
reference dataset for spatial and territorial analyses on different
territorial levels (Bttner et al., 2002). To make the Corine Land
Cover categories (44) compatible with WRF Pre-processing System
(WPS) the Corine Land Cover is reclassied to the USGS category
(24 land-use categories, Pineda et al., 2004). The Corine Land Cover
dataset is projected on the European Terrestrial Reference System
1989 (ETRS89) Lambert Azimuthal Equal Area (LAEA), which is not
compatible with the WRF system. Therefore the Corine Land Cover
is re-projected to the World Geodetic coordinate System 1984
(WGS84) Arnold et al. (2010). The Corine Land Cover dataset can be
found on: http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/corineland-cover-2006-raster-2.
2.1. Description of the model
The Chemistry Weather Research Forecasting model (WRFChem) version 3.6.1 is used in this study (Grell et al., 2005; Fast
et al., 2006). The WRF-ARW system is a non-hydrostatic model
(with a hydrostatic option) using terrain-following vertical coordinate based on hydrostatic pressure. The terrestrial data sets for
the WRF model are built using the NCEP geographical data. These
consist of global data sets for soil categories, land-use, terrain
height, annual mean deep soil temperature, monthly vegetation
fraction, monthly albedo, maximum snow albedo and slopes. The
resolution used for implementing land-use in the proposed study is
based on (i) the Corine 2006 Land Cover data set (100 m  100 m)
and (ii) the 30-arc seconds United States Geological Survey (USGS)

database. WRF-Chem uses the USGS 24-category land-use data,

which are available for different horizontal resolutions (100 , 50 , 20 ,
3000 ; 00 denotes arc seconds and 0 denotes arc minutes). The highest
horizontal resolution used in this study corresponds to
~1 km  1 km. The horizontal resolution is set by the user in the
pre-processing step in WPS.
The gas phase chemistry is calculated using the Goddard Global
Ozone Chemistry Aerosol Radiation and Transport model (GOCART,
Chin et al., 2000) coupled with the Regional Atmospheric Chemistry Mechanism (Stockwell et al., 1997) Kinetic Pre-Processor
(RACM-KPP) mechanism (Damian et al., 2002; Sandu et al., 2003;
Sandu and Sander, 2006). GOCART applies the bulk-scheme
approach for the distribution of the aerosols. This means that the
aerosol size is kept constant, only the aerosol mass is calculated.
GOCART does not account for secondary organic aerosol and does
not include the interaction with radiation (direct effect) and cloud
processes (indirect effect). Aerosol species in GOCART are PM2.5,
PM10, sulphate, black carbon, organic carbon, sea salt, dimethyl
sulphide (DMS), methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and natural dust
(DMS and MSA are not considered in this work). The cloud
microphysics is calculated using the WSM 5-class scheme with
vapour, rain, snow, cloud ice and cloud water. The model uses the
Noah land surface model scheme (Chen and Dudhia, 2001) with soil
temperature and moisture in four layers, fractional snow cover and
frozen soil physics and provides heat and moisture uxes for the
PBL. The Yonsei University PBL scheme is used to set up the model
(Hong et al., 2006) and the radiation is calculated by the RRTM
scheme (Mlawer et al., 1997). The short wave radiation is simulated
by the Goddard scheme (Chou and Suarez, 1999, NASA Tech Memo).
For domain 1 (10  10 km) the convective New Grell scheme by
Grell and Devenyi (2002) is activated. The cumulus scheme is not
activated for domain 2 (2  2 km). It is recommended to activate
the cumulus scheme on coarser grids e.g. >10  10 km, when it is
not resolved by the model (http://www.dtcenter.org/wrf-nmm/
users/docs/user_guide/V3/users_guide_nmm_chap5.pdf). The vertical discretization of WRF-Chem involves 37 levels up to about

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A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Table 1a
Overview of the stations used in this work and their geographical location in
longitude and latitude.

Table 1b
Overview of the WRF-Chem parameterisations, which are used for the 2 km  2 km
domain.

Station name

Longitude (degree)

Latitude (degree)

Parameter

WRF-Chem

Pavia
Gallarate
Osio Sotto
Treviglio
Bergamo via Meucci
Bergamo via Garibaldi
Calusco
Arese
Cassano d'Adda
Cinisello Balsamo
Legnano
Corsico
Limito
Milan viale Marche
Pero
Rho
Turbigo
Busto Arsizo, via Magenta
Somma Lombardo MXP
Varese via Vidoletti
Lallio
Costa Volpino
Cantu
Como
Erba
Mariano Comense
Olgiate Comasco
Colico
Lecco
Valmadrera
Moggio
Ospitaletti Brescia
Cormano
Saronno via Santuario
Casirate
Montanaso
Broletto
Darfo
Magenta
Sarezzo
Lodi via Vignati
Varese Voghera

9.15
8.79
9.58
9.59
9.88
9.66
9.47
9.07
9.51
9.21
8.91
9.11
9.33
9.19
9.08
9.04
8.73
8.85
8.70
8.80
9.63
10.10
9.13
9.08
9.22
9.18
8.96
9.36
9.39
9.36
9.48
10.07
9.16
9.02
9.56
9.46
10.21
10.18
8.88
10.20
9.50
9.01

45.05
45.66
45.62
45.52
45.61
45.69
45.69
45.55
45.52
45.55
45.59
45.53
45.50
45.49
45.51
45.53
45.53
45.61
45.68
45.84
45.66
45.83
45.73
45.80
45.81
45.70
45.78
46.13
45.85
45.85
45.93
45.55
45.54
45.62
45.49
45.33
45.54
45.88
45.46
45.65
45.31
44.99

Integration time step [s]

Radiation calculation
frequency [min]
Snow cover effects
Cloud effect on radiation
Radiation

6
10

18.5 km. The most relevant settings of WRF-Chem for domain 2 are
given in Table 1b.
WRF operates on two resolutions (10  10 km [D1] and 2  2 km
[D2]) following the NDOWN methodology (one way nesting). This
methodology involves using the coarse grid model simulation as
input for the ner model. The initial and lateral boundary conditions for the ner grid simulation are used from the coarse grid
simulation (ARW Users's Guide, http://www.mmm.ucar.edu/wrf/
users/docs/user_guide/ARWUsersGuide.pdf). In this work D2 uses
the lateral and boundary conditions from D1.
To investigate the impact of Corine Land Cover on calculated gas
and PM10 concentrations in WRF-Chem we run the D2 simulation
twice; once with the Corine Land Cover and once with the 30 arc
seconds USGS Land Cover.
The anthropogenic emissions are constructed for each domain
with the anthro_emis tool (available at http://www.acd.ucar.edu/
wrf-chem/download.shtml). The emissions used in the study are
from the EC-JCR/PBL (2010) Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) inventory version 4.2 for the year 2008,
source: European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC)/
Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL). Emission
Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), release
version 4.2, http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu, 2011. EDGAR v4.2 contains the following species CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, SF6, CFCs,

Microphysics
Cumulus scheme
PBL
LSM
Surface Layer
Chemistry option
Chemistry time step
Photolysis scheme
Gas dry deposition
Aerosol dry deposition
Gas chemistry
Aerosol chemistry
Wet scavenging
Vertical mixing
Subgrid convective transport
Biomass burning emissions
Aerosol radiation feedback
(direct and indirect)

Yes (Noah)
Yes (Goddard)
Chou and Suarez (1999,
NASA Tech Memo)
WRF Single-Moment 5-class
scheme (Hong and Lim, 2006)
None
YSU (MRF successor) (Hong et al., 2006)
Noah (Chen and Dudhia, 2001)
Monin-Obukhov
GOCART coupled with RACM-KPP
1.5
Madronich photolysis (TUV)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
None
Yes
Yes
None
None

HCFCs, CO, NOx, NMVOC, SO2, NH3, BC, OC, PM10 and PM2.5 on
0.10  0.10 (Olivier et al., 2001; Janssens-Maenhout et al., 2012).
The emissions depend on type of activities, seasonal and
geographical distribution of the emissions and are based on information including urban/rural population density, animal density,
power and industrial plants, oil and gas elds, shipping and aircraft
routes, coal mines, road network, rice elds, crop and grass lands.
Sources of abrasive emissions in road transport and construction
are not included in the emission inventory, which are two important diffusive emission sources for PM10. Also absent are particulate matter emissions by wood burning for residential heating
purposes in northern Italy, and also biogenic emissions and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. This is deemed acceptable
because the objective of this paper is to investigate the impact of
the high resolution SRTM topography and Corine Land Cover on
calculated air pollutants, and not to evaluate the model performance in air pollutant concentrations by comparison with
observations.
For our study we use PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NOx (as NO), NH3, CO,
CO2, OC, BC and CH4 total emissions. The emissions are distributed
in the lowest model layer, which is around 27 m. In De Meij et al.
(2009) two different emission inventories were used (EMEP and
AEROCOM) to study the impact of the vertical and temporal distribution of the emissions, it was found that most of the anthropogenic emissions are distributed in the rst model layer.
2.2. Differences in land-use between Corine Land Cover and USGS
Land Cover
To illustrate the differences in the land cover categories between
the Corine Land Cover and the 30s USGS data bases we show in
Fig. 2 the distribution of the 24 land cover classes.
A big fraction of the Po Valley in USGS is classied as Dryland
cropland and pasture, while in the Corine dataset several land
cover classes are represented, such as urban and built-up, deciduous broadleaf forest and cropland/woodland. Another difference is
found in the irrigated cropland and pasture, which in the Corine

A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

181

Fig. 2. Geographical representation of the main land-use category classes in Corine Land Cover (a) and USGS (b) in the model domain.

Land Cover is situated between Milan and Turin. This corresponds

with the rice paddies found in that area. Also the fraction of water
bodies in the two datasets is not similar. The Po and the Ticino river
are clearly visible in the 30 arc seconds USGS. Whereas the Ticino
river is mainly classied in the Corine Land Cover dataset as deciduous forest. Larger differences are found over the Alps for
which the Corine dataset registers Barren or sparsely vegetated,
while the USGS registers wooded tundra for this area.
In Table 2 the number of cells representing the land cover
classes in domain 2 are presented. The number of grid cells per land
use is estimated by calculating the most dominant land use type in
the grid cell by applying an arbitrary number of 0.6, i.e. we count
the number of grid cells with a land use type fraction of 0.6 or

higher in a grid cell. Large differences are found for example in

urban built-up land (~4 times larger in Corine LC), Dry cropland and
pasture (~2 times larger in USGS), Irrigated cropland and pasture
(~4 times larger in Corine LC) and Barren or sparsely vegetated
(1317 grid cells in Corina LC and zero in USGS) and wooded tundra
(932 cells in USGS and zero in Corine LC).
3. Results
3.1. Impact on meteorological parameters
In De Meij and Vinuesa (2014) the impact of the high resolution
SRTM topography and Corine Land Cover data on simulated

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A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Table 2
USGS 24 land use categories together with the number of cells per land use, in model
domain 2, for USGS and Corine Land cover.
USGS Land
use category

Land use description

# Cells in the
USGS land use

# Cells in the
corine Land
cover

1
2
3
4

Urban and built-up land

Dryland cropland and pasture
Irrigated cropland and pasture
Mixed dryland/irrigated
cropland and pasture
Cropland/grassland mosaic
Cropland/woodland mosaic
Grassland
Shrubland
Mixed shrubland/grassland
Savanna
Deciduous broadleaf forest
Deciduous needleleaf forest
Evergreen broadleaf
Evergreen needleleaf
Mixed forest
Water bodies
Herbaceous wetland
Wooden wetland
Barren or sparsely vegetated
Herbaceous tundra
Wooded tundra
Mixed tundra
Bare ground tundra
Snow or ice

66
5541
141
e

277
2412
596
e

40
256
241
95
10
2
608
1
e
1116
566
267
e
e
e
e
932
3
e
393

e
615
508
e
42
e
953
e
e
602
186
122
e
e
1317
e
e
e
e
235

5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24

meteorological variables (wind speed at ten metres height, temperature at 2 m height [T2] and precipitation) in WRF was investigated. They compared the results with the WRF simulation using
the standard 30-arc seconds USGS Land Cover and topography, and
with observations of the ARPA network, with the focus on the
Lombardy region (north Italy) for a winter and a summer period in
2010. They used the same model conguration in WRF as this study,
with the only difference being that the domain of interest in this
study is larger and the horizontal resolution is 2  2 km, while in De
Meij and Vinuesa (2014) the domain had a horizontal resolution of
1  1 km.
3.1.1. Temperature at 2 m (T2)
De Meij and Vinuesa (2014) showed that during the winter
period large differences are found in calculated T2 between the two
simulations outside the city of Milan. WRF_USGS underestimated
the observed temperatures for seven (out of 20 stations), while
WRF_CLC underestimated the observations for 4 stations. In all
cases the relation RMSEmod < STDEVobs is valid, which is one of the
conditions for good quality modelling results (Barna and Lamb,
2000). In our study we nd similar differences in temperature
outside the city of Milan i.e. higher temperatures by WRF_CLC
(Fig. 3) due to the higher fraction urban built up area in the Corine
Land Cover, which is less present in the 30-arc seconds USGS
(Fig. 2). De Meij and Vinuesa (2014) found a large difference in the
fraction of urban built up for this area (~17 times higher in
CorineLC).
Over the Alps T2 by WRF_CLC are in general higher (up to ~3  C),
but there are also some areas for which WRF_CLC calculates lower
T2 than WRF_USGS (up to 3.5  C). Analysing the differences in the
terrain height between WRF_CLC (with SRTM) and WRF_USGS we
see that the differences in T2 follow the pattern of the differences in
the terrain height (Fig. 3c). Over the Alps, WRF_CLC calculates
higher temperatures (indicated in green, yellow and red) in areas
where the SRTM height is lower than USGS topography. Similar but
opposite, the areas within the black contour lines represent areas of

lower surface temperatures (indicated in blue) and higher topography by SRTM.

This suggests that the difference in the heights and slopes of the
mountains between the SRTM and USGS topography is responsible
for the differences in the temperatures over the Alps.
Higher T2 is calculated by WRF_USGS over the Po and Ticino
rivers than by WRF_CLC. This is related to the differences in latent
and sensible heat uxes, which will be explained hereafter. The
strange feature at the bottom of the plot is probably related the
presence of high steep mountains at the Ligurian coast line
(topography better resolved by SRTM) and the border effect. The
border effect is a common strange feature in WRF using multiple
nesting over complex terrains.
To understand better the differences in simulated T2 between
WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS we analyse in Fig. 4 the upward sensible
(SHF) and latent (LH) heat uxes by the two simulations. The
latent (moist) and sensible (dry) heat uxes regulate the ground
temperature and the planetary boundary layer (PBL) development.
When the ratio between sensible and latent heat ux (Bowen
ratio) is large the PBL is deeper than when the Bowen ratio is
small. Over most land surfaces the sensible heat uxes determine
the convection of air in the atmosphere (Ball 1960) and therefore
the PBL. When the latent heat uxes are higher than the sensible
heat uxes, the temperature near the surface is lower compared to
the areas where the sensible heat uxes and PBL heights are
higher (Fraedrich et al., 1999). Unfortunately we do not have observations available of the sensible, latent heat uxes and PBL
heights to compare with calculated heat uxes and PBL heights
by WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS. However, comparing the heat
uxes and PBL heights between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS helps
us to understand the differences in calculated meteorological
parameters.
Analysing the monthly average SHF in Fig. 4 we see that higher
uxes are calculated over urban areas by WRF_CLC than by
WRF_USGS (indicated in light blue). These areas of higher SHF
correspond to the higher fraction of the urban built-up class in the
Corine Land Cover, which is less represented in the USGS as
mentioned before. Around Turin, Gallarate, Novara, Osio Sotto,
Milan and Piacenza higher SH uxes are calculated by WRF_CLC,
due to the larger fraction of urban built-up class in the Corine LC.
Conversely larger SH uxes are calculated by WRF_USGS for those
areas which correspond to the location of rivers (indicated in orange) that pass nearby Pavia and Piacenza. Analysing the water
bodies class in the two LC datasets, we see that the rivers in the
USGS dataset are more clearly represented than in the Corine LC.
These differences are related to the higher spatial resolution of the
Corine LC that resolves better the geographical distribution of the
land cover (LC) classes in the domain. For example, the Po river is on
many places less than 300 m wide. Hence the Corine LC (resolution
of 100  100 m) resolves the rivers better than the 30 arc seconds
USGS (resolution of ~1  1 km), and therefore does not show
elevated heat uxes over the river Po and Ticino river as WRF_USGS
does.
In Fig. 5 the monthly average latent heat (LH) uxes by WRF_CLC
and WRF_USGS are presented. Clear differences are present in LH
uxes between the two simulations. Higher LH uxes are found by
WRF_USGS over a large part of the Po Valley, especially over those
areas for which the LC class urban built-up is missing or less represented in the USGS dataset. Higher LH uxes over land result in
lower temperatures at the surface, as shown in Fig. 3. This conrms
the nding by De Meij and Vinuesa (2014). Higher LH uxes are also
found by WRF_USGS over the river Po and the Ticino river (indicated in red), for which the simulation with the Corine LC calculates
lower LH uxes. The differences in LH uxes are related to higher
details of the LC classes in Corine LC as described before.

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183

Fig. 3. Average temperatures at 2 m height (degrees Celsius) simulated by WRF_CLC (a) and WRF_USGS (b) for January 2010. Temperatures lower than 10 are indicated in blue
(minimum temperature is around 22  C for the two simulations) and temperatures higher than 6.5 are indicated in red. For WRF_USGS the maximum temperature is 6.9  C. In
Fig. 3c is the difference in monthly mean 2 m temperature (degrees Celsius) between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS shown, together with the difference in height between SRTM and
USGS topography datasets (black contour lines). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

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A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Fig. 4. Monthly average sensible heat uxes by WRF_CLC (a) and WRF_USGS (b) in W/m2. The red colour represents SH uxes higher than 200 W/m2 and purple lower than 34 W/
m2. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

We have seen that over the Po Valley region higher SH uxes are
in general calculated by WRF_CLC, due to the higher fraction of the
urban built-up class in the Corine Land Cover. Larger SH uxes
result in larger PBL heights (Van den Hurk, 1995) over the urban
areas, which corroborates the monthly average PBL heights by
WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS in Fig. 6. PBL heights are in general higher
for WRF_CLC than for WRF_USGS. This corresponds with the results
by De Meij and Vinuesa (2014). Higher PBL heights are calculated
over the Po and Ticino rivers by WRF_USGS, because higher sensible heat uxes are calculated for these areas as described earlier.

3.1.2. Wind speed

In Fig. 7 clear differences are found in the average simulated
wind speeds at ten meters (10 m) height between WRF_CLC and
WRF_USGS over a large area in the Po Valley (larger by WRF_USGS).
For large areas in WRF_CLC, which are classied as urban areas in
the Corine Land Cover data (Fig. 2), lower wind speeds are calculated. Since the Corine Land Cover includes more urban area in the

model domain than the 30-arc seconds USGS data the wind speeds
are reduced due to more friction. This conrms the nding by De
Meij and Vinuesa (2014). They found that the calculated average
wind speeds are in general lower by WRF_CLC than by WRF_USGS.
WRF_CLC predictions are in better agreement with the observations. For example, the bias of the average wind speeds predicted by
WRF_CLC is lower (0.70 0.33 m/s) than that predicted by
WRF_USGS (0.78 0.46 m/s). Similarly the STDERR values, based
on 8 stations, are on average lower by WRF_CLC (1.30) than by
WRF_USGS (1.38). All RMSE values are lower than the standard
deviation of the observed wind speeds.
SRTM topography shows slightly higher mountain peaks (up to
4015 m) than USGS topography (maximum is ~4009 m). The differences in terrain heights between SRTM and USGS are shown in
Fig. 8. Clearly visible from this gure are the differences in terrain
height over the Alps. Higher resolution of the topography by SRTM
(90  90 m) resolves better the mountains peaks, slopes and valleys, which impact the wind speeds (and direction) over complex

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185

Fig. 5. Monthly average sensible heat uxes by WRF_CLC (a) and WRF_USGS (b) in W/m2. The red represents LH uxes higher than 100 W/m2 and purple lower than 10 W/m2.
(For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

mountainous terrains. For this reason WRF_CLC with SRTM

topography calculates in general higher wind speeds over the Alps
than WRF_USGS.

3.1.3. Precipitation
Over urban areas (e.g. city of Turin, Gallarate, city of Milan, and
the Bergamo area (Orio Sotto)) higher monthly total precipitation
are calculated by WRF_CLC (Fig. 8). The differences in higher precipitation over urban areas by WRF_CLC are related to the differences in the heat uxes and the related cloud liquid water. Cloud
liquid water over the Po Valley is larger for WRF_CLC varying between ~5 and 60% and over the Alps up to 70e80 % higher for some
places leading to more precipitation by WRF_CLC.
Fig. 8 shows also the differences in precipitation over the
domain. Analysing the differences in precipitation over the Alps by
overlaying the differences in height between the SRTM and USGS
topography (black contour lines) we see a clear pattern between
the differences in precipitation and those of height.

In general, higher precipitation by WRF_CLC (indicated in green,

yellow and red (in web version)) is calculated for those areas over
the Alps where the terrain height by SRTM is higher (solid black
lines). Lower precipitation by WRF_CLC (indicated in blue) is found
for which USGS represents higher topography. Overall higher cloud
liquid water quantities are found by WRF_CLC over the Alps than by
WRF_USGS (not shown), which implies that the SRTM topography
increases the production of cloud liquid water and hence precipitation. Unfortunately there are no free observations of precipitation
available for the Alp region.
In De Meij and Vinuesa (2014) a statistical analysis was performed of the hit rates of the precipitation for the stations in the Po
Valley. They used ve threshold values for the precipitation amount
accumulated over the day: 0.1 mm/day, 0.2 mm/day, 0.5 mm/day,
1 mm/day, and 2 mm/day. The selected threshold values describe
the amount of precipitation in different bins for that region and for
which the hit rate statistics still give reasonable values. They found
that the probability of detection of the precipitation event is
somewhat higher (on average 1%) by the simulation with the SRTM

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A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Fig. 6. Monthly average PBL heights (m) by WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS.

and Corine Land Cover than simulation with USGS, while the false
alarms values are in general similar. The frequency bias for the
threshold values 0.5 mm and 1.0 mm are larger than 1 for both the
simulations, indicating that they both overestimate the number of
precipitation events for these thresholds. Interesting is that for the
threshold value of 2 mm, lower FBI values are found for WRF_CLC at
the mountain stations (e.g. Como Villa Geno, Como Villa Gallia and
Caslino d'Erba). This result indicates a better timing in the precipitation events at these areas and is attributed to the implementation of the SRTM topography.
The Hansen-Kuipers score, which summarizes the model's
ability to correctly time both the precipitation events and to avoid
the false alarms, is in general 1% higher for WRF with SRTM and
Corine Land Cover. For the stations surrounded by complex terrain,
the maximum difference in HKS is found for Como Villa Gallia (31%,
2 mm threshold level). This indicates that WRF_CLC performs
better than WRF_USGS for the heavier precipitation events for this
station. The majority of the stations used in this work are located in
the Po Valley for which the differences in monthly precipitation
quantities between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS are ~5 mm. The
average HKS is higher by WRF_CLC at six stations (out of 18) and by
WRF_USGS at 2 stations (out of 18). The larger monthly mean

differences in precipitation are found over the Alps, up to 15 mm

(Fig. 8). Unfortunately we had no precipitation data available to
compare our model results over the Alps, which would make our
statistical comparison more robust.
For 7 (out of 18) stations, the land use type classication
changed. For example, Olgiate Comasco is classied as Dryland
cropland and pasture in USGS while as Urban built-up land in the
Corine LC. Analysing the HKS for the 2 mm threshold at this station
we nd that it is higher by 9% for the WRF_CLC simulation. The
maximum difference in the HKS is found for Como Villa Gallia (29%,
WRF_CLC higher). This station is classied as Dryland cropland and
pasture in USGS and as Cropland/woodland mosaic. The maximum
difference in topography between USGS and SRTM around this
station is ~75 m, which impact the cloud liquid water content as
mentioned earlier. Higher monthly average cloud liquid water
content is found for WRF_CLC (~63% higher) than WRF_USGS for
this area.
3.2. Gas pollutants
Dry deposition is responsible for a large amount of removal of
gases and aerosols from the atmosphere. In contrast to wet

Fig. 7. Monthly average wind speed (m/s) calculated by WRF_CLC (a) and WRF_USGS (b) for January 2010. The white pixels in WRF_USGS represent wind speeds up to 7.7 m/s.

Fig. 8. The differences in total monthly precipitation quantities between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS. The black contour lines represent the differences in height between the SRTM
topography and the 30 arc seconds USGS topography (at 50 m).

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A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Fig. 9. Difference of monthly average CO (a), NO (b) and SO2 (c) concentrations (ppmv) between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS.

A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Table 3
Monthly mean observed and calculated CO concentrations (ppm) by WRF_CLC and
WRF_USGS.
Station name

Observed monthly WRF_CLC monthly WRF_USGS

mean CO (ppm)
mean CO (ppm)
monthly
mean CO (ppm)

Gallarate
Pavia
Milan Verziere
Arese
Treviglio
Calusco d'Adda
Bergamo via Garibaldi
Cassono d'Adda
Corsico
Limito
Milan, viale Marche
Rho
Busto Arsizo, via
Magenta
Somma Lombardo MXP
Saronno, via Marconi
Como
Pavia via Folperti
Voghera
Average

0.59
0.65
1.78
1.31
1.65
0.85
1.93
1.49
1.66
1.06
1.99
1.60
1.12

0.47
0.25
0.50
0.48
0.42
0.33
0.51
0.29
0.47
0.36
0.46
0.50
0.49

0.24
0.15
0.43
0.37
0.22
0.22
0.22
0.24
0.39
0.34
0.45
0.34
0.25

0.10
0.05
0.20
0.17
0.11
0.08
0.08
0.12
0.19
0.18
0.21
0.15
0.10

0.24
0.14
0.42
0.36
0.22
0.22
0.21
0.24
0.39
0.33
0.44
0.35
0.25

0.09
0.05
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.09
0.08
0.12
0.18
0.17
0.21
0.15
0.10

0.55
0.63
2.20
1.00
0.66
1.26

0.37
0.44
0.72
0.22
0.24
0.42

0.21
0.31
0.22
0.12
0.13
0.27

0.09
0.14
0.09
0.03
0.04
0.12

0.21
0.31
0.21
0.11
0.12
0.27

0.09
0.12
0.08
0.11
0.03
0.12

deposition, which occurs in specic events, dry deposition is a

continuous process, occurring at the surface. In this section we
analyse the impact of SRTM and Corine LC on gas pollutant
concentrations.
In general, monthly average CO, NO and SO2 concentrations are
higher for WRF_CLC over a large part of the domain (Fig. 9), especially over the Po Valley (indicated in green, yellow and red (in web
version)). The reason for this is related to the larger fraction of
urban built-up areas in the Corine Land Cover, which reduce the
wind speeds due to increased friction and therefore increased the
dry deposition. The distribution of the anthropogenic emissions
such as CO, NO, SO2 corroborates with the location of the urban
areas, as represented in the Corine Land Cover. These urban areas
are less represented in the USGS dataset. For example, in Fig. 2 we
have seen that the area north-west of Milan is dominated by the
urban built-up area class in the Corine Land Cover, while in the
USGS dataset this area is dominated by deciduous broadleaf forest,
cropland/woodland and dry cropland. The highest emission

Table 4
Monthly mean observed and calculated SO2 concentrations (ppb) by WRF_CLC and
WRF_USGS.
Station name

Observed monthly WRF_CLC monthly WRF_USGS

mean SO2 (ppb)
mean SO2 (ppb)
monthly mean
SO2 (ppb)

Gallarate
Lallio
Bergamo via Garibaldi
Treviglio
Colico
Como
Erba, via Battisti
Varese Vidoletti
Arese
Cassano d'Adda
Cinisello Balsamo
Corsico
Legnano
Cormano
Turbigo
Average

1.16
3.53
4.38
3.19
3.04
1.15
1.16
2.41
70.2
50.7
92.7
52.6
61.4
1.80
2.68
23.5

1.31
0.45
0.94
0.27
0.72
0.59
0.44
0.71
54.2
30.9
57.5
32.2
44.4
1.89
1.87
15.2

3.87
3.91
4.13
3.23
2.36
5.87
5.25
4.38
9.47
3.65
12.8
5.64
7.59
12.5
33.8
7.90

3.90
3.06
3.06
3.20
1.41
4.07
3.42
3.11
5.80
3.46
7.54
4.29
5.39
7.29
22.9
5.46

2.99
3.68
3.91
2.92
2.14
5.16
4.87
3.84
8.78
3.30
11.6
5.04
6.76
11.4
22.6
6.60

3.01
2.65
2.83
2.82
1.25
3.13
2.86
2.56
4.67
3.17
6.07
3.62
4.54
5.80
13.4
4.16

189

quantities of CO, SO2 and NO are found over urban areas such as
Turin, Milan, Pavia, Novara and north-west of Milan (not shown).
For CO, maximum differences in calculated monthly concentrations (WRF_CLC > WRF_USGS) are found around Turin, Milan
and Pavia (up to 0.038 ppmv, ~20% higher) and negative differences
(WRF_CLC < WRF_USGS) are found up to 0.026 ppm (~10% lower)
north of Turin. Comparing with observations, calculated monthly
mean CO concentrations are in general underestimated by a factor
of ~3.6 by both the simulations, respectively (based on 18 stations,
see Table 3). For both simulations, the temporal correlation coefcients are in general low, on average ~0.19.
A possible explanation for this large underestimation could be
related to frequent wood burning for heating purposes in Northern
Italy during the winter time, which are not accounted for in the
emission inventory. Uncertainties in the emission factors for CO in
the emission inventory and unaccounted sources of CO which
contribute to the underestimation of CO in the inventory could be
held responsible for the underestimation of CO in a winter period.
We emphasize that the objective of this study is to investigate the
impact of the high resolution SRTM topography and Corine Land
Cover on calculated air pollutants and not to evaluate the modelled
performance in calculated air pollutant concentrations by
comparing with observations.
For SO2 maximum differences are found also between Gallarate
and Novara up to 0.020 ppmv (~55%) and negative difference up
to 1.104 ppmv (~15%) between Pavia and Piacenza. Comparing
with observations (Table 4), calculated monthly mean SO2 concentrations are in general underestimated by a factor of ~2.9 and 3.6
by WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS, respectively For the stations which
are characterized as urban (e.g. Arese, Cassano d'Adda, Cinisello
Balsamo, Corsico and Legnano), the monthly mean observed values
are a factor of 9 and 10 higher than the calculated ones by WRF_CLC
and WRF_USGS, respectively. Interesting to note is that for these
locations, the monthly average SO2 calculated concentrations for
WRF_CLC is ~10% higher than for WRF_USGS. The large overestimation by the two simulations at Turbigo might be related to
the presence of the power plant in this area and the horizontal
distribution of the emissions in the emission inventory. The
representativity of the measurement location relative to the grid
cell of the model is always an issue when model results are
compared with ground-based measurements (De Meij et al., 2006).
The highest temporal correlation coefcients are found for Varese
Vidoletti; 0.45 for WRF_CLC and 0.33 for WRF_USGS. For the other
stations, the temporal correlation coefcients are low, on average
0.12. Excluding the urban stations and Turbigo from the comparison results in an underestimation by a factor of 1.5 and 1.8 for
WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS, respectively.
For NO, maximum differences are found between Gallarate and
Novara up to 0.017 ppmv (~50%) with negative differences (~20%)
found north of Turin. Compared to observations, calculated
monthly mean NOx concentrations are in general underestimated
by a factor of ~3.5 by the two simulations (based on 31 stations,
Table 5). On average, WRF_CLC calculates higher monthly mean
NOx values (~5%) than WRF_USGS for 12 (out of 29) stations, while
WRF_USGS calculates higher monthly mean NOx concentrations for
two stations. In general the temporal correlation coefcients by the
two simulations are low (~0.28) with the highest temporal correlation coefcient found for Colico by WRF_CLC (0.53).
As described earlier, the monthly mean CO concentrations by
the two simulations are very similar. However, analysing the
calculated CO concentrations for specic time periods we see larger
differences between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS.
For example, in Fig. 10a the measured CO concentrations (ppm)
for Arese are shown, together with the calculated concentrations by
WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS. Arese is classied as urban built-up in

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A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Table 5
Monthly mean observed and calculated NOx concentrations (ppm) by WRF_CLC and
WRF_USGS.
Station name

WRF_CLC monthly WRF_USGS

Observed
mean NOx (ppm) monthly mean
monthly
mean NOx (ppm)
NOx (ppm)

Pavia
Gallarate
Osio Sotto
Treviglio
Bergamo via Meucci
Bergamo via Garibaldi
Calusco
Arese
Cassano d'Adda
Cinisello Balsamo
Legnano
Corsico
Limito
Milan viale Marche
Pero
Rho
Turbigo
Busto Arsizo, via Magenta
Somma Lombardo MXP
Varese via Vidoletti
Lallio
Costa Volpino
Cantu
Como
Erba
Mariano Comense
Olgiate Comasco
Colico
Lecco
Valmadrera
Moggio
Average

0.06
0.09
0.07
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.11
0.10
0.07
0.13
0.09
0.07
0.08
0.12
0.13
0.10
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.09
0.06
0.10
0.11
0.06
0.11
0.08
0.03
0.09
0.05
0.01
0.08

0.02
0.07
0.04
0.03
0.06
0.07
0.07
0.08
0.04
0.08
0.06
0.05
0.05
0.07
0.09
0.07
0.04
0.05
0.05
0.04
0.07
0.03
0.06
0.07
0.05
0.08
0.06
0.02
0.06
0.04
0.01
0.01

0.01
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.04
0.02
0.05
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.04
0.04
0.03
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.02

0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.01
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.03
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01

0.01
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.03
0.02
0.05
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.04
0.04
0.03
0.03
0.03
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.03
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.02

0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.01
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.01
0.00
0.01

WRF_CLC and as irrigated cropland and pasture in WRF_USGS.

Monthly average observed concentration is 1.31 0.48 ppm and
0.37 0.17 by WRF_CLC and 0.36 0.15 ppm by WRF_USGS. The
temporal correlation coefcients are 0.33 and 0.29, respectively. As
shown in Fig. 7 WRF_CLC calculates lower wind speeds over the Po
Valley area (where Arese is situated). Lower wind speeds will increase the dry deposition of gas pollutants, hence increasing the gas
pollutant concentrations at ground level. In Fig. 10b, we show the
calculated wind speeds by WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS together with
the calculated CO concentrations. Clearly visible is that when the
wind speeds decrease the calculated CO concentrations increase
and vice versa. For example, on 23 January higher wind speeds are
calculated by WRF_USGS (dashed red line) than by WRF_CLC (black
dashed line). The resulting CO concentrations by WRF_CLC are a
factor of ~2 higher than by WRF_USGS.

3.3. PM10
Fig. 11 shows the difference in monthly average PM10 concentrations between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS. The white lines
represent the height of the topographic from the SRTM dataset.
For the Po Valley area WRF_CLC calculates in general higher
monthly average PM10 concentrations, varying between ~1 mg/m3
(~3% higher) northerly of Milan to 2 mg/m3 (~7% higher) southerly of
Milan and 6.7 mg/m3 (~26% higher) westerly of Milan. Over a large
part of the Alps (indicated with the white terrain height contour
lines) WRF_USGS calculates higher monthly average PM10 concentrations (indicated in blue (in web version)) than WRF_CLC, but
the differences are small on average ~0.25 mg/m3 (up to ~20% lower
by WRF_CLC). An important removal mechanism for particulate

matter of the atmosphere is wet deposition. As mentioned in Section 3.1 large areas over the Alps show larger precipitation by
WRF_CLC, which removes the aerosol and precursors more effectively leading to lower monthly average PM10 concentrations than
by WRF_USGS. Similar to the distribution of the emissions of the
gas species, the highest PM10 emissions are found over Turin,
Milan, Pavia, Novara and the area north-west of Milan, which corroborates the presence of urban built-up area in the Corine Land
Cover, as mentioned previously.
Analysing the calculated PM10 concentrations in more detail,
we nd large differences between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS,
especially during the night. In Fig. 12, we show for Busto Arsizio the
calculated PM10 concentrations by WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS
(dashed black and red lines, respectively) together with the PBL
heights for the two simulations (solid black and red lines, respectively). The city of Busto Arsizio (located ~<5 km south-easterly of
Gallarate) is classied as urban built-up in WRF_CLC and as dry
cropland and pasture in WRF_USGS.
The reason for the differences in PM10 concentrations is related
to the differences in PBL heights, especially during the night. For the
periods that WRF_CLC calculates higher PM10 concentrations the
PBL heights are lower than by WRF_USGS. For example, on 23rd
January higher PM10 concentrations are calculated by WRF_CLC
than by WRF_USGS (up to ~13 mg/m3 difference around 07:00GMT).
This difference is related to the lower PBL heights by WRFC_CLC.
The average PBL height during the night of 23 January (i.e. between
18:00 22nd January and 06:00 23rd January) by WRF_CLC is ~45 m
and ~143 m by WRF_USGS with a maximum difference of ~270 m
around 01:00 (GMT) on 23 January, see solid black and red lines in
Fig. 12. The differences in PBL heights are caused by the different
land cover classications and the related heat uxes. As described
before, sensible heat uxes are responsible for the development of
the PBL heights. Corresponding average sensible heat uxes
are 0.02 W/m2 for WRF_CLC and 7.3 W/m2 for WRF_USGS during
this period, which are related to the differences in land cover
classications as mentioned before.
The difference in PBL heights is responsible for the differences in
aerosol concentrations between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS. During
the night of 23 January the vertical mixing by WRF_USGS is better
than by WRF_CLC, because of the higher PBL height. A deeper PBL
leads to lower aerosol concentrations at ground level. Daily average
PM10 observed concentration for Busto Arsizio on 23rd January is
66 mg/m3 and calculated averages are 32.6 mg/m3 by WRF_CLC and
23.5 mg/m3 by WRF_USGS.
A quantitative comparison of the monthly average PM10 concentrations with the observations shows that calculated PM10
concentrations are underestimated by a factor ~4 by the two simulations (see Table 6). As mentioned in Section 2 the absence of
abrasive road and construction diffusive PM10 emissions in the
EDGAR emission inventory, the absence of PM emissions by wood
burning for residential heating purposes in northern Italy, the
absence of biogenic emissions and the absence of SOA formation
contribute to the underestimation of the calculated PM10 concentrations. Nevertheless, on this day WRF_CLC calculates higher PM10
concentrations than by WRF_USGS due to the impact of the
improved resolution brought by the Corine Land Cover and is closer
to the observations. A study by De Meij et al. (2009) found also a
large underestimation of calculated PM10 concentrations over the
Po Valley during a winter period. Monthly mean calculated PM10
concentrations were underestimated by a factor of ~3 for January
2005 when compared to observations (based on 5 stations).
On average WRF_CLC calculates higher monthly mean average
PM10 concentrations (3.5%) than WRF_USGS for 15 (out of 25)
stations. The largest differences are calculated for Turbigo (13.8%),
Voghera (14.2%) and Montanaso (8%). For 12 (out of 25) stations, the

A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

191

(a)

(b)

Fig. 10. (a) Measured hourly CO concentrations (ppm) for Arese (black line) together
with the calculated concentrations by WRF_CLC (red line) and WRF_USGS (blue line)
for January 2010. (b) Snapshot of the calculated CO concentrations together with the
calculated wind speeds for the period 22 and 23 January. The solid lines represent the
calculated CO concentrations by WRF_CLC (black) and WRF_USGS (red), the dashed
lines the corresponding wind speeds by the two simulations. The right y-axis in (b)
represents the wind speed in m/s. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this
gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

temporal correlation coefcients are < 0.2, while for Gallarate,

Moggio, Darfo, Turbigo, Erba, Saronno, Busto Arsizio, Cantu, Arese
and Olgiate Comasco the temporal correlation coefcients are
higher than 0.40, with the highest temporal correlation coefcients
for Gallarate (0.59 for WRF_CLC and 0.60 for WRF_USGS).

Fig. 12. PM10 concentrations by WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS for Busto Arsizio (black and
red dashed lines, respectively), together with the PBL heights for the two simulations
(WRF_CLC black; WRF_USGS red) for 2 days in January (22nde24th January). Right yaxis represents the PBL height in meters. (For interpretation of the references to colour
in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

In Fig. 13 another example is presented for Osio Sotto. This

location is classied as dry cropland and pasture in WRF_CLC and as
irrigated cropland and pasture in WRF_USGS.
On 17th January higher PM10 concentrations are calculated by
WRF_CLC than by WRF_USGS (up to ~9 mg/m3 difference during the
morning). This difference is related to the lower PBL heights by
WRF_CLC, caused by the difference land cover classications and
the related heat uxes as mentioned previously. The average PBL
height during the night of the 17th January by WRF_CLC is ~35 m
and ~86 m by WRF_USGS with a maximum difference of ~76 m.
This difference in PBL height is responsible for the differences in
aerosol concentrations between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS. The
corresponding sensible heat uxes are 2.3 W/m2 by WRF_CLC and
6.0 W/m2 by WRF_USGS, due to the differences in land cover
classication. Daily average PM10 observed concentration for Osio
Sotto on 17th January is 77 mg/m3 and calculated averages are
26.6 mg/m3 by WRF_CLC and 25.3 mg/m3 by WRF_USGS.
On the other hand, on the 17th and 18th around midday, higher
PBL heights are calculated by WRF_CLC with resulting lower PM10
concentrations. Sensible heat uxes by WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS

Fig. 11. The difference in monthly average PM10 concentrations (mg/m3) between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS. The white lines represent the terrain height of the topographic by the
SRTM dataset.

192

A. De Meij et al. / Atmospheric Environment 101 (2015) 177e193

Table 6
Monthly mean observed and calculated PM10 concentrations (mg/m3) for WRF_CLC
and WRF_USGS.
Station name

Observed monthly WRF_CLC monthly WRF_USGS

mean PM10 mg/m3 mean PM10 mg/m3 monthly mean
PM10 mg/m3

Busto Arsizio
Gallarate Piazza
S. Lorenzo
Saronno via Santuario
Calcuso d'Adda
Casirad d'Adda
Osio Sotto
Treveglio
Cantu via Meucci
Erba via Battisti
Olgiate Comasco
Arese
Magenta
Milano Verziere
Lodi viale Vignati
Montanaso
Bergamo via Garibaldi
Lallio
Moggio
Valmadrera
Lecco
Varese Copelli
Voghera
Turbigo
Limito
Cassano d'Adda
Average

63.3 27.9
67.9 33.3
76.2
65.1
73.2
59.3
66.0
50.9
55.6
59.9
71.3
59.4
74.8
64.3
58.6
78.3
71.4
11.3
63.9
54.2
56.8
58.2
60.2
77.2
84.1
63.3

35.6
27.1
23.3
25.8
23.3
22.6
29.5
25.5
30.7
24.1
30.3
27.2
21.8
32.8
27.4
7.24
31.1
30.6
24.7
24.3
24.9
30.8
27.9
26.8

17.1 6.55
16.1 6.17
18.0
18.2
14.4
15.3
14.3
15.7
12.9
14.1
21.4
17.6
22.5
16.5
16.0
13.9
14.6
8.51
12.3
14.5
14.0
11.2
23.0
18.7
15.5
15.9

7.05
5.68
5.91
5.77
6.12
5.74
4.90
5.32
7.65
6.71
7.71
5.90
4.93
4.84
5.18
3.79
4.68
5.31
5.34
4.22
8.48
7.50
6.06
5.90

17.0 6.40
16.1 6.13
17.8
18.2
13.8
15.0
14.1
15.5
12.5
14.0
21.3
17.3
22.1
16.2
14.8
13.5
14.4
8.69
12.9
14.4
14.2
9.80
20.2
19.1
15.2
15.5

6.72
6.14
5.80
5.78
5.99
5.46
4.90
5.20
7.44
6.64
8.19
5.90
5.44
5.01
5.18
3.84
5.01
5.40
5.10
4.30
7.93
8.13
6.25
5.93

are around 39.5 and 44.9 W/m2, respectively and mean LH uxes
are 19.2 and 22.0 W/m2, respectively.

4. Conclusions
In this paper, we investigated the impact of using SRTM
topography data together with Corine Land Cover on the simulated
gas and PM10 by WRF-Chem. We focused our analysis on the wellknown, highly urbanized region of the Po Valley in northern Italy.
Our analysis was performed by comparing the results to a simulation using topographic and land cover USGS data, resolved to 30 arc
seconds and observations.
Our analysis conrms the previous ndings of De Meij and
Vinuesa (2014). Specically, large differences in the geographical

distribution of the land cover classes between Corine and USGS

Land Cover datasets result in higher modelled temperatures at 2 m
and reduced wind speeds in WRF_CLC mainly due to increased
friction at the surface. We also found that WRF_CLC favours precipitation in a large of part the Alps and that the pattern of the
difference by using the WRF_CLC or WRF_USGS follows the difference in topography between the two topography datasets.
As land cover dataset's associated exchange coefcients are
different (i.e. latent and sensible heat uxes), large differences
between them impact noticeably the boundary layer development
and depth.
In term of air quality indicators, the impacts are also large. For
instance, monthly average of CO, NO and SO2 concentrations over a
large part of the Po Valley are higher when using Corine Land Cover,
up to ~20, ~50 and ~55%, respectively. With respect to PM10, the
impacts are geographically dependent. Over the Po valley area,
levels are in general higher using Corine Land Cover (up to 6.7 mg/
m3 [~26%] westerly of Milan) while differences are smaller over the
Alps (~0.25 mg/m3 [~20%]). Gas and PM10 concentrations are
underestimated by both model simulations. A quantitative comparison of the monthly average PM10 concentrations with the observations shows that calculated PM10 concentrations are
underestimated by a factor ~4 by the two simulations. However,
during some episodes and for some regions larger differences in
calculated PM10 concentrations between WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS
are found (e.g. higher than 10 mg/m3 by WRF_CLC), with a better
agreement with the observations by WRF_CLC than by WRF_USGS.
This could become important when daily limit values of PM10 may
be exceeded. For CO, SO2 and NOx the modelled monthly mean
concentrations are similar for the two simulations. However,
similar to PM10 larger differences are found between the two
simulations for some episodes, for which the simulation with SRTM
and Corine LC agrees better with the observations.
Atmospheric chemistry transport models will benet from the
use of the high resolution SRTM and Corine Land Cover data,
especially with regard to reducing the differences between
observed and simulated aerosol (precursor) concentrations, which
is necessary for scientic studies and for policy making. Besides
this, environmental sustainable related projects (e.g. ENORASIS;
http://www.enorasis.eu/) for which meteorological models are
used for optimizing irrigation management by farmers, will benet
from higher precision precipitation, wind speed and temperature
elds by the meteorological models.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank ARPA Lombardia for making the observations of meteorological and air pollutant concentrations
publically available through their website. This study is fully funded
by NOVELTIS' internal R&D initiative.
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Fig. 13. PM10 concentrations by WRF_CLC and WRF_USGS for Osio Sotto (black and
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(WRF_CLC black; WRF_USGS red) for 2.5 days in January (16the18th January). Right yaxis represents the PBL height in meters. (For interpretation of the references to colour
in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

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