1 Presentation of the EURODELTA III inter-comparison exercise - Evaluation of the chemistry transport models performance on criteria pollutants and joint analysis with meteorology B. Bessagnet 1 , G. Pirovano 2 , M. Mircea 3 , C. Cuvelier 4 , A. Aulinger 5 , G. Calori 6 , G. Ciarelli 7 , A. 5 Manders 8 , R. Stern 9 , S. Tsyro 10 , M. García Vivanco 11 , P. Thunis 12 , M.-T. Pay 13 , A. Colette 1 , F. Couvidat 1 , F. Meleux 1 , L. Rouïl 1 , A. Ung 1 , S. Aksoyoglu 7 , J. M. Baldasano 13 , J. Bieser 5 , G. Briganti 3 , A. Cappelletti 3 , M. D’Isidoro 3 , S. Finardi 6 , R. Kranenburg 8 , C. Silibello 6 , C. Carnevale 14 , W. Aas 15 , J.- C. Dupont 16 , H. Fagerli 10 , L. Gonzalez 17 , L. Menut 18 , A. S. H. Prévôt 7 , P. Roberts 17 , L. White 19 1 INERIS, National Institute for Industrial Environment and Risks, Parc Technologique ALATA, F-60550 Verneuil-en- 10 Halatte, France 2 RSE S.p.A., via Rubattino 54, 20134 Milano, Italy 3 ENEA, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Via Martiri di Monte Sole 4, 40129 Bologna, Italy 4 Ex European Commission, Joint Research Centre JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability I-21020 Ispra (Va), Italy 15 5 HZG, Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Institute for Coastal Research, Max-Planck-Straße 1, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany 6 ARIANET Srl, Via Gilino n.9 20128, Milano, Italy 7 PSI, LAC, Paul Scherrer Institute, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland 8 TNO, Dept. Climate, Air and Sustainability, P.O. Box 80015, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands 9 Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Meteorologie Troposphärische Umweltforschung Carl-Heinrich-Becker Weg 6-10, D- 20 12165 Berlin, Germany 10 Climate Modelling and Air Pollution Division, Research and Development Department, Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway) P.O. Box 43, Blindern, N-0313 Oslo, Norway 11 CIEMAT, Atmospheric Pollution Unit, Avda. Complutense, 22, 28040 Madrid, Spain 12 European Commission, Joint Research Centre JRC Institute for Environment and Sustainability I-21020 Ispra (Va), Italy 25 13 BSC, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Centro Nacional de Supercomputación, Nexus II Building, Jordi Girona, 29, 08034 Barcelona, Spain 14 Department of Electronics for the Automation, University of Brescia, via Branze 38, I 25123 Brescia, Italy 15 Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Box 100, 2027 Kjeller, Norway 16 Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, Paris, France 30 17 CONCAWE, Boulevard du Souverain 165, B-1160 Brussels, Belgium 18 Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, École Polytechnique, ENS, UPMC, CNRS, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, 91128 Palaiseau, France 19 AERIS EUROPE Ltd., Strouds Church Lane West Sussex RH17 7AY, United Kingdom Correspondence to: B. Bessagnet (bertrand.bessagnet@ineris.fr) 35 Abstract. The EURODELTA III exercise allows a very comprehensive inter-comparison and evaluation of chemistry transport models performance. Participating models were applied over four different one month period, within a rather limited number of years (from June 2006 to March 2009) thus allowing evaluating the influence of different meteorological conditions on model performance. The exercise was performed under strict requirements concerning the input data. As a consequence, there were very limited differences in the models set up, representing a sort of sensitivity analysis to several 40 aspects of the modelling chains. The models were evaluated mainly on background stations. Even if the meteorology was Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., doi:10.5194/acp-2015-736, 2016 Manuscript under review for journal Atmos. Chem. Phys. Published: 25 January 2016 c  Author(s) 2016. CC-BY 3.0 License.