High-resolution atmospheric CO2 concentration data simulated in WRF-Chem over East Asia for 10 years

In this study, high-resolution CO2 concentration data were generated for East Asia to analyse long-term changes in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, as East Asia is an important region for understanding the global carbon cycle. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem), atmospheric CO2 concentrations were simulated in East Asia at a resolution of 9 km for a period of 10 years (2009-2018). The generated CO2 concentration data include CO2 concentrations, biogenic CO2 concentrations, anthropogenic CO2 concentrations, oceanic CO2 concentrations, biospheric CO2 uptake, biospheric CO2 release and meteorological variables at 3-h intervals. The simulated high-resolution CO2 concentrations, biogenic CO2 concentrations and anthropogenic CO2 concentrations are stored in NetCDF-4 (Network Common Data Form, version 4) format and are available for download at . The simulated annual mean surface CO2 concentrations in East Asia were 391.027 ppm in 2009 and 412.949 ppm in 2018, indicating an increase of 21.922 ppm over the 10-year period with appropriate seasonal variabilities. The monthly mean CO2 concentrations in East Asia were verified using surface CO2 observations and satellite column-averaged CO2 mole fraction (XCO2) from Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2). Based on surface CO2 observations and OCO-2 XCO2 concentrations, the average root-mean-square error (RMSE) of the simulated CO2 concentrations in WRF-Chem was 2.474 and 0.374 ppm, respectively, which is smaller than the average RMSE of the low-resolution CarbonTracker 2019B (CT2019B) simulation. Therefore, the simulated high-resolution atmospheric CO2 concentrations in East Asia in WRF-Chem over 10 years are reliable data that resemble the observed values and could be highly valuable in understanding the carbon cycle in East Asia.