US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Chemistry-Climate Feedbacks on Egypt and the Nile River Basin

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In this project, a gas and aqueous chemical mechanism and a detailed aerosol mechanism will be coupled to a regional climate model (RegCM3). RegCM3 includes the formation and transport of several aerosol species, but lacks the chemistry needed for a fully coupled online model that simultaneously treats regional climate and atmospheric chemistry. The coupled model will be used to simulate present and future climate over Egypt, with a specific focus on the Nile Basin, in order to evaluate the role of atmospheric aerosols on Egypt's climate. The Greater Cairo region is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East, with large amounts of gas and particulate air pollutants that affect the region at large. Because of the large emissions of both biogenic and anthropogenic species, a fully coupled chemistry-climate simulation is needed to evaluate these feedbacks and their impacts. The simulations will consider the direct and indirect impacts of aerosols and assess their potential effects on the climate and water resources of the Nile River Basin.The chemical composition of the troposphere plays a key role in understanding present day and future climate. This project will integrate U.S. and Egyptian atmospheric scientists with scientists from the Egyptian Meteorological Authority (EMA) and the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). Broader impacts of the project also include the training of graduate students or junior scientists from Egypt and the U.S. Funding for this project is being provided by the NSF Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE).