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Abstract. Emissions are a central component of atmosphericchemistry models. The Harmonized Emissions Component (HEMCO) is a softwarecomponent for computing emissions from a user-selected ensemble of emissioninventories and algorithms. It allows users to re-grid, combine, overwrite,subset, and scale emissions from different inventories through aconfiguration file and with no change to the model source code. Theconfiguration file also maps emissions to model species with appropriateunits. HEMCO can operate in offline stand-alone mode, but more importantlyit provides an online facility for models to compute emissions at runtime.HEMCO complies with the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF) forportability across models. We present a new version here, HEMCO 3.0, thatfeatures an improved three-layer architecture to facilitate implementationinto any atmospheric model and improved capability for calculatingemissions at any model resolution including multiscale and unstructuredgrids. The three-layer architecture of HEMCO 3.0 includes (1) the Data InputLayer that reads the configuration file and accesses the HEMCO library ofemission inventories and other environmental data, (2) the HEMCO Core thatcomputes emissions on the user-selected HEMCO grid, and (3) the ModelInterface Layer that re-grids (if needed) and serves the data to theatmospheric model and also serves model data to the HEMCO Core forcomputing emissions dependent on model state (such as from dust or vegetation). The HEMCO Core is common to the implementation in all models, whilethe Data Input Layer and the Model Interface Layer are adaptable to themodel environment. Default versions of the Data Input Layer and ModelInterface Layer enable straightforward implementation of HEMCO in any simplemodel architecture, and options are available to disable features such asre-gridding that may be done by independent couplers in more complexarchitectures. The HEMCO library of emission inventories and algorithms iscontinuously enriched through user contributions so that new inventoriescan be immediately shared across models. HEMCO can also serve as a generaldata broker for models to process input data not only for emissions but forany gridded environmental datasets. We describe existing implementations ofHEMCO 3.0 in (1) the GEOS-Chem “Classic” chemical transport model withshared-memory infrastructure, (2) the high-performance GEOS-Chem (GCHP)model with distributed-memory architecture, (3) the NASA GEOS Earth SystemModel (GEOS ESM), (4) the Weather Research and Forecasting model withGEOS-Chem (WRF-GC), (5) the Community Earth System Model Version 2 (CESM2),and (6) the NOAA Global Ensemble Forecast System – Aerosols(GEFS-Aerosols), as well as the planned implementation in the NOAA Unified ForecastSystem (UFS). Implementation of HEMCO in CESM2 contributes to theMulti-Scale Infrastructure for Chemistry and Aerosols (MUSICA) by providinga common emissions infrastructure to support different simulations ofatmospheric chemistry across scales. 

Carbon monoxide (CO) is an ozone precursor, oxidant sink, and widely used pollution tracer. The importance of anthropogenic versus other CO sources in the US is uncertain. Here, we interpret extensive airborne measurements with an atmospheric model to constrain US fossil and nonfossil CO sources. Measurements reveal a low bias in the simulated CO background and a 30% overestimate of US fossil CO emissions in the 2016 National Emissions Inventory. After optimization we apply the model for source partitioning. During summer, regional fossil sources account for just 9%–16% of the sampled boundary layer CO, and 32%–38% of the North American enhancement—complicating use of CO as a fossil fuel tracer. The remainder predominantly reflects biogenic hydrocarbon oxidation plus fires. Fossil sources account for less domain‐wide spatial variability at this time than nonfossil and background contributions. The regional fossil contribution rises in other seasons, and drives ambient variability downwind of urban areas.