HR: 14:10h
AN: A13G-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Emissions and transport of air pollutants from China to the Pacific: Major findings from the EAST-AIRE air campaign
AU: * Li, C
EM: canli@atmos.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, College Park, MD 20742, United States
AU: * Li, C
EM: canli@atmos.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, College Park, MD 20742, United States
AU: Li, Z
EM: zli@atmos.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, College Park, MD 20742, United States
AU: Li, Z
EM: zli@atmos.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, College Park, MD 20742, United States
AU: Li, Z
EM: zli@atmos.umd.edu
AF: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Beijing, 100029, China
AU: Dickerson, R R
EM: russ@atmos.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, College Park, MD 20742, United States
AU: Dickerson, R R
EM: russ@atmos.umd.edu
AF: University of Maryland, Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center, College Park, MD 20742, United States
AU: Chen, H
EM: chb@mail.iap.ac.cn
AF: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Beijing, 100029, China
AB: Accompanying economic boom over the past few decades, pollutant emissions from China have increased dramatically and raised growing concerns regarding their large-scale impact. Observations over the Pacific Ocean and numerical simulations generally identify mid-latitude cyclones as the major mechanism driving the long-range transport of pollutants off the Chinese coast to downwind areas. Here we present results from the first aircraft campaign of EAST-AIRE (East Asian Study of Tropospheric Aerosols: an International Regional Experiment), carried out over an industrialized region in Northeast China in spring 2005. Prefrontal and postfrontal flights provide vertical distribution of pollutants within different sectors of two mid-latitude cyclones traveling through the area. In consistence with previous studies, both cyclones feature abundant anthropogenic pollutants ahead of cold fronts, and much lower pollutant levels (but with dust) behind cold fronts. Pollutant levels above the planetary boundary layer (PBL) were found substantial in one prefrontal flight (April 5) but low in the other (April 11), showing different potentials for long-range transport. Backward trajectories suggest that in both cases, isentropic upward motions associated with the SW flows in the warm sector were weak and largely constrained within PBL. Synoptic analysis and satellite observations further indicate that upwind dry (non- precipitating) convection may explain the pollutants observed above PBL on the 5th. With the assistance of forward trajectory analysis and chemical transport models, two satellite sensors (OMI and MODIS) successfully tracked the pollution plume associated with the April 5 cyclone, as it propagated into the North Pacific on the next few days. Satellite observed changes in SO₂ and aerosol content within the plume are used to qualitatively estimate the conversion from aerosol precursor gases to secondary aerosols, in a semi-Lagrangian way.
UR: http://www.atmos.umd.edu/~zli/EAST-AIRE/station.htm
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251)
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting