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Modelling and prediction of air pollutant transport during the 2014 biomass burning and forest fires in peninsular Southeast Asia

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Abstract

During the dry season, from November to April, agricultural biomass burning and forest fires especially from March to late April in mainland Southeast Asian countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam frequently cause severe particulate pollution not only in the local areas but also across the whole region and beyond due to the prevailing meteorological conditions. Recently, the BASE-ASIA (Biomass-burning Aerosols in South East Asia: Smoke Impact Assessment) and 7-SEAS (7-South-East Asian Studies) studies have provided detailed analysis and important understandings of the transport of pollutants, in particular, the aerosols and their characteristics across the region due to biomass burning in Southeast Asia (SEA). Following these studies, in this paper, we study the transport of particulate air pollution across the peninsular region of SEA and beyond during the March 2014 burning period using meteorological modelling approach and available ground-based and satellite measurements to ascertain the extent of the aerosol pollution and transport in the region of this particular event. The results show that the air pollutants from SEA biomass burning in March 2014 were transported at high altitude to southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and beyond as has been highlighted in the BASE-ASIA and 7-SEAS studies. There are strong evidences that the biomass burning in SEA especially in mid-March 2014 has not only caused widespread high particle pollution in Thailand (especially the northern region where most of the fires occurred) but also impacted on the air quality in Hong Kong as measured at the ground-based stations and in LulinC (Taiwan) where a remote background monitoring station is located.

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Acknowledgments

The provision of air quality data from the Pollution Control Department (PCD) of Thailand, the Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong SAR, Professor N. Lin of National Central University (Chung-Li, Taiwan) and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) of Taiwan is gratefully acknowledged.

Analyses and visualizations, where they are indicated in the paper, were produced with the Giovanni online data system, developed and maintained by the NASA GES DISC, and CALIPSO satellite products from NASA Langley Research Center. We also acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and/or READY website (http://www.ready.noaa.gov) used in this publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Quality, Atmospheric Science and Climate Change Research Group & Faculty of Environment and Labour Safety, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Hiep Nguyen Duc & Ngo Xuan Quang

  2. Office of Environment & Heritages, New South Wales, NSW, Australia

    Hiep Nguyen Duc

  3. Institute for Environment and Resources/Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Ho Quoc Bang

  4. Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Institute of Tropical Biology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Ngo Xuan Quang

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  1. Hiep Nguyen Duc
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  2. Ho Quoc Bang
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Correspondence to Hiep Nguyen Duc.

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Duc, H.N., Bang, H.Q. & Quang, N.X. Modelling and prediction of air pollutant transport during the 2014 biomass burning and forest fires in peninsular Southeast Asia. Environ Monit Assess 188, 106 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5106-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5106-9

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