Regional transport and formation of air pollutants between sea and land under the monsoon climate

Reactive air pollutants and their secondary products are related to air quality and climate. The growing human activities (fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning, fertilizer use, and industrial activity) result in increasing negative impacts on ocean biota and marine resources. Aerosols in the marine atmosphere are episodically & dramatically influenced by long distance transport from continental regions. Monsoon climate, high population density and strong anthropogenic emissions in East Asia and Southeast Asia cause interaction of air pollutants between sea and land to affect air quality and climate change.

Our study based on two intensive measurements by ground sites, ship cruise, and aircraft in eastern of China in 2011 and southern and southwest of China in 2015.

The ship cruise measurements in the eastern coast of China indicated that the decline of the organic indicators for continental anthropogenic sources and the decline of PM and its major chemical compositions with longitude. The influence of Asian continental outflow during monsoon season was analyzed by identification of BC source regions at a receptor site of eastern coast of China. The variability in the relationship between BC and CO found BC aging during transport.

Two Mt. background sites and aircraft measurements to explore the influence of biomass burning (BB) in the South Asia to air quality in southern and southwest of China. The aloft BB transport was captured by aircraft observations to demonstrate impacts of springtime BB in Southeast Asia on atmospheric carbonaceous components over the Gulf of Beibu in China. Intensive BB activities in the South Asia were detected by fire maps. The long-range transport of BB pollutants can increase the accumulation mode particles in the background atmosphere at Mt. Yulong (3410 m). CCN concentration was 2-8 times higher during BB periods than during clean periods.