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. 2018 Jun 12;8(1):8962.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-27129-2.

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

Xinyi Dong  1 , Joshua S Fu  2   3 , Kan Huang  1   4 , Neng-Huei Lin  5 , Sheng-Hsiang Wang  5 , Cheng-En Yang  1
Affiliations

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

Xinyi Dong et al. Sci Rep. .

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) MPLNET Lidar observation of NRB at EPA-NCU site from Mar.27 00:00UTC to Apr.01 00:00UTC 2006, the brown dashed boxes indicated the two co-existence cases; HYSPLIT backward (left side) and forward (right side) trajectory analysis at (b) Mar.28 00:00UTC; and (c) Mar.29 16:00UTC; (d) carbon emission from FLABME; (e) PM10 observation from API, PCD, EANET, and TAQMN; and (f) MODIS AOD. [Maps were made using the NCAR Command Language v6.4.0 software, http://dx.doi.org/10.5065/D6WD3XH5. HYSPLIT trajectory figures were made with the NOAA Air Resource Lab HYSPLIT online tool, https://ready.arl.noaa.gov/HYSPLIT_traj.php].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Spatial distributions of wind vector, pressure contour, dust concentration, and biomass burning O3 concentration on (a) Mar.27 at 4000 m; (b) Mar.28 at 3000 m; (c) Mar.29 at 2000m; and (d) Mar.30 at 1500 m above sea level; Zonal average (19°N-24°N, along the red dashed box in (a)) cross section distributions of wind vector, dust concentration, and biomass burning O3 concentration on (e) Mar.27; (f) Mar.28; (g) Mar.29; and (h) Mar.30. [Maps were made using the NCAR Command Language v6.4.0 software, http://dx.doi.org/10.5065/D6WD3XH5].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Hourly changes of (a). PSEA biomass burning carbon emission (TgC) and (b). O3 (ppb) observations averaged at all 77 TAQMN sites and PM10 measurements (µg/m3) at Wanli site; (c). Sounding measurements of O3 vertical profiles on Feb.24 (grey line), Mar.17 (green line), and Mar.20 (orange line) representing the cases of no biomass burning, biomass burning only, and co-existence condition. [The figure was made with Office365-Excel, Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Daily variations of (a). PSEA biomass burning carbon emission (TgC), surface concentrations of (b). PM10, PM2.5, (c) O3 and CO, and (d). temperature and wind speed averaged at all TAQMN sites. [The figure was made with Office365-Excel, Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA].
Figure 5
Figure 5
WRF/CMAQ simulated temporal changes of O3, NOx (using primary Y-axis on the left side), and SO2 (using secondary Y-axis on the right side) concentrations with (dash lines) and without the dust heterogeneous chemistry. [The figure was made with Office365-Excel, Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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