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Potential feedback between aerosols and meteorological conditions in a heavy pollution event over the Tibetan Plateau and Indo-Gangetic Plain

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Abstract

A regional climate model, WRF-Chem, was used to investigate the feedback between aerosols and meteorological conditions in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP). The numerical experiments (15-km horizontal resolution) with and without the aerosol effects are driven by reanalysis of data for 1–31 March 2009, when a heavy pollution event (13–19 March) occurred. The results showed that the model captured the spatial and temporal meteorological conditions and aerosol optical characteristics during the heavy pollution days. Aerosols induced cooling at the surface and warming in the middle troposphere due to their radiative effects, and resulted in a more stable PBL over the IGP. Aerosol-induced 2-m relative humidity (RH) was increased. The stable PBL likely led to the surface PM2.5 concentration increase of up to 21 μg m−3 (15 %) over the IGP. For the TP, the atmospheric profile did not drastically change due to fewer radiative effects of aerosols in the PBL compared with those over the IGP. The aerosol-induced RH decreased due to cloud albedo and cloud lifetime effect, and led to a reduction in surface PM2.5 concentration of up to 17 μg m−3 (13 %). These results suggest a negative and positive feedback over the TP and IGP, respectively, between aerosol concentrations and changes of aerosol-induced meteorological conditions. Similar positive feedbacks have been observed in other heavily polluted regions (e.g., the North China Plain). The results have implications for the study of air pollution on weather and environment over the TP and IGP.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41301061, 41421061, 41571062, 41190081, and 41190080), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KJZD-EW-G03-04),  China Meteorological Administration Special Public Welfare Research Fund (GYHY201306019). Additionally, we would like to acknowledge esources and time on the Supercomputing Center, Big Data Center of Cold and Arid Region Environment and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences and we grateful to Guohui Zhao for his help of installing some software.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), 320 West Donggang Road, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, China

    Junhua Yang, Keqin Duan, Shichang Kang & Peihong Shi

  2. College of Tourism and Environment, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an, 710119, China

    Junhua Yang & Keqin Duan

  3. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Shichang Kang

  4. Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Building 3, Courtyard 16, Lincui Rd. Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100101, China

    Zhenming Ji

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  1. Junhua Yang
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  2. Keqin Duan
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  3. Shichang Kang
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Correspondence to Shichang Kang or Zhenming Ji.

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Yang, J., Duan, K., Kang, S. et al. Potential feedback between aerosols and meteorological conditions in a heavy pollution event over the Tibetan Plateau and Indo-Gangetic Plain. Clim Dyn 48, 2901–2917 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3240-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3240-2

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