High-Resolution air quality forecasts with MOCAGE chemistry transport model

MOCAGE is the 3D global off-line chemistry transport model (CTM) run at Météo-France since 2005 for air quality operational forecasts. Three nested domains are used, with decreasing resolutions (globe, Europe, and France), and 47 vertical levels (from the surface to 5 hPa). For the global and the European domain, input meteorological forcing fields are Météo-France ARPEGE forecasts. For France, and for the first day of forecast, MOCAGE uses the operational outputs of Météo-France non-hydrostatic AROME model. This high-resolution (2.5 km) meteorological model is supposed to better represent urban processes (e.g., the urban heat island), which are of strong interest for air quality applications. The purpose of this study is to test the increase of resolution of the CTM MOCAGE over France from 0.1° to 0.025° (i.e. the native resolution of the input meteorological fields)