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Observations of Asian Dust and Agricultural Fire Smoke Episodes: Transport and Impacts on Regional Air Quality in Southeast China

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Land-Atmospheric Research Applications in South and Southeast Asia

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Abstract

This chapter presents an integrated observations of Asian dust and agricultural fire smoke episodes in spring and summer 2011 in Nanjing, China, using multiple satellites, ground-based sensors, and transport model. The source, long-range transport, time-height distribution, optical characteristics, and impacts on the air quality and visibility are demonstrated. The dust episode on May 1 shows two dust layers loading in the planetary-boundary-layer (PBL) and free troposphere originating from the Gobi deserts and Taklimakan deserts, respectively. The dust aerosols show the depolarization ratio of 0.1–0.2, optical depth (AOD) of 1.6 at 500-nm, and Angstrom exponents of 0.2. The hourly PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations show the maximum value of 767 μg/m3 and 222 μg/m3 thus indicating a heavy air pollution. The models are capable of simulating the right timing of dust transport event and primary loading in the PBL. For the episode of agricultural fires on June 3–4, the smoke aerosols are mainly located in the PBL with small depolarization ratio, and the AODs increase up to 3.0 with Angstrom exponent of 1.5–1.6. The PM10 and PM2.5 mass indicate a dramatic increase with the peak value reaching 800 μg/m3 and 485 μg/m3, respectively. The MODIS fire product shows the sources of agriculture fires located in the mid-east China (e.g., Jiangshu, Anhui, and Henan provinces). Regional transports are further illustrated by MODIS, OMI, and CALIPSO. Finally, the evaluations of MODIS-AOD and their correlation with the ground PM10 are illustrated in Nanjing urban area.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the dataset from the NASA satellites MODIS, AIRS, OMI CALIPSO and AERONET, NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) HYSPLIT model, NRL-NAAPS model teams, and Nanjing Environment Monitoring Center, China. This work was jointly supported by the NOAA # NA16SEC4810008, National Science Foundation of China (NSFC#) (Grant No. 41075012 and 40805006), and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BE2015151).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NOAA-CREST at the City College of the City University of New York, New York, NY, 10031, USA

    Yonghua Wu

  2. School of Atmospheric Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Yong Han & Tijian Wang

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  1. Yonghua Wu
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  2. Yong Han
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  3. Tijian Wang
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Correspondence to Yonghua Wu or Yong Han .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA

    Krishna Prasad Vadrevu

  2. National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

    Toshimasa Ohara

  3. Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Chris Justice

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Wu, Y., Han, Y., Wang, T. (2018). Observations of Asian Dust and Agricultural Fire Smoke Episodes: Transport and Impacts on Regional Air Quality in Southeast China. In: Vadrevu, K., Ohara, T., Justice, C. (eds) Land-Atmospheric Research Applications in South and Southeast Asia. Springer Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67474-2_5

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