Chemical and Meteorological Feedbacks in the Formation of Intense Haze Events

Citation:

Gao M, Carmichael GR, Wang Y, Saide PE, Liu Z, Xin J, Shan Y, Wang Z. Chemical and Meteorological Feedbacks in the Formation of Intense Haze Events. In: Bouarar I, Wang X, Brasseur GP Air Pollution in Eastern Asia: An Integrated Perspective. Cham: Springer International Publishing ; 2017. pp. 437–452.

Abstract:

Intense haze events in China provide ideal opportunities to study meteorological and chemical feedbacks due to extremely high aerosol loadings. In this chapter, an online coupled meteorology-chemistry model, WRF-Chem, is applied to simulate impacts of aerosol feedbacks on meteorology and air quality during the January 2010 haze event over the North China Plain (NCP). The results show that the model reasonably reproduces well most meteorological, chemical and optical variables. Aerosols during this haze event can reduce surface downward shortwave radiation by 25.7% and planetary boundary layer height by 14.9%. Due to aerosol feedbacks, PM2.5 concentrations in urban Beijing increase by 11.2% at 14:00. The severe haze also enhances cloud droplet number concentrations, which can further affect cloud chemistry. These results indicate that aerosol feedbacks in the NCP, especially in urban regions, are important and should be considered when develop air pollution control and climate mitigation strategies.

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Last updated on 07/20/2018