Analysis of the Co-existence of Long-range Transport Biomass Burning and Dust in the Subtropical West Pacific Region

Abstract

Biomass burning and wind-blown dust has been well investigated during the past decade regarding their impacts on environment, but their co-existence hasn’t been recognized because they usually occur in different locations and episodes. In this study we reveal the unique co-existence condition that dust from the Taklamakan and Gobi Desert (TGD) and biomass burning from Peninsular Southeast Asia (PSEA) can reach to the west Pacific region simultaneously in boreal spring (March and April). The upper level trough at 700hPa along east coast of China favors the large scale subsidence of TGD dust while it travels southeastwards, and drives the PSEA biomass burning plume carried by the westerlies at 3–5 km to descend rapidly to around 1.5 km and mix with dust around southeast China and Taiwan. As compared to the monthly averages in March and April, surface observations suggested that concentrations of PM10, PM2.5, O3, and CO were 69%, 37%, 20%, and 18% higher respectively during the 10 identified co-existence events which usually lasted for 2–3 days. Co-existence also lowers the surface O3, NOx, and SO2 by 4–5% due to the heterogeneous chemistry between biomass burning and mineral dust as indicated by model simulations.

Regional Climate Effects of Biomass Burning and Dust in East Asia: Evidence From Modeling and Observation

“…Biomass burning aerosols and dust can both be present over the southeast coast of China in boreal spring (Dong et al, 2018). In this section, we examine the overall DRE change resulting from the simultaneous presence of both biomass burning and dust aerosols, which to our knowledge has never been investigated.…”

Relationship between temporal anomalies in PM2.5 concentrations and reported influenza/influenza-like illness activity

“…Aerosol process-level properties vary on scales of at least meters to thousands of meters. The detection and simulation abilities of such interactions, especially those near and shorter than hundreds of meters scale, are major limiting challenges that have direct implications to understanding and modeling how aerosols might influence human health (e.g., Chen et al., 2020 ; Wang et al., 2019 ; Dong et al., 2018 ; Gao and Ji, 2018 ; Hart et al., 2018 ; Miller and Xu, 2018 ), how aerosols interact among themselves and/or other processes and their surroundings (e.g., Pani et al., 2019 ; DeFelice, 2018 ; Dong et al., 2018 ; Fröhlich-Nowoisky et al., 2016 ; Khain et al., 2015 ; Calvo et al., 2013 ; Li et al., 2013 ; Sun et al., 2013 ; Després et al., 2012 ; Jiménez-Escalona and Peralta, 2012 ; Tao et al., 2012 ; Udisti et al., 2012 ; Andrews et al., 2011 ; Hultin et al., 2011 ; Mahowald et al., 2011 ; Moore et al., 2011 ; Modini et al., 2010 ; Andreae, 2009 ; Fan et al., 2009 ; Khain and Lynn, 2009 ; Min et al., 2009 ; Rosenfeld et al., 2008 ; Griffin, 2007 ; Bates et al., 2006 ; Textor et al., 2006 ; Reid et al., 2005 ; Lewis and Schwartz, 2004 ; Mikhailov et al., 2004 ; Pinker et al., 2004 ; Pósfai et al., 2003 ; Zielinski, 2002 ; Baron and Willeke, 2001 ; Baron et al., 2001 ; Naoki et al., 2001 ; Fuentes et al., 2000 ; Leck and Bigg, 1999 ; DeFelice and Cheng, 1998 ; DeFelice, 1997a , b ; Kaufman et al., 1997 ; Pruppacher and Klett, 1997 ; DeFelice, 1996 ; Saxena, 1996 ...…”

About Validation-Comparison of Burned Area Products

“…In this paper we will focus on two regions: Northern Hemisphere South America (NHSA) and Northern Hemisphere Africa (NHAF). Both regions are highly affected by fires [43][44][45][46][47][48]. This work proposes a method for validation and comparison of five BA products with reference data by including the location, biomass, land cover, fire size, and the number of fires in 44 scenes of the tropics in Northern Hemisphere South America (NHSA) and Northern Hemisphere Africa (NHAF).…”

“…In this paper we will focus on two regions: Northern Hemisphere South America (NHSA) and Northern Hemisphere Africa (NHAF). Both regions are highly affected by fires [43][44][45][46][47][48]. Giglio et al, (2006Giglio et al, ( , 2010 [8,42,49].…”