Meteorological mechanism of regional PM2.5 transport building a receptor region for heavy air pollution over Central China

Yongqing Bai; Tianliang Zhao; Weiyang Hu; Yue Zhou; Jie Xiong; Ying Wang; Lin Liu; Lijuan Shen; Shaofei Kong; Kai Meng; Huang Zheng

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151951

Meteorological mechanism of regional PM_2.5 transport building a receptor region for heavy air pollution over Central China

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Feb 20:808:151951. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151951. Epub 2021 Dec 2.

Authors

Yongqing Bai¹, Tianliang Zhao², Weiyang Hu³, Yue Zhou⁴, Jie Xiong¹, Ying Wang³, Lin Liu¹, Lijuan Shen³, Shaofei Kong⁵, Kai Meng⁶, Huang Zheng⁵

Affiliations

¹ Hubei Key Laboratory for Heavy Rain Monitoring and Warning Research, Institute of Heavy Rain, China Meteorological Administration, Wuhan 430205, China.
² Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China. Electronic address: tlzhao@nuist.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
⁴ Hubei Key Laboratory for Heavy Rain Monitoring and Warning Research, Institute of Heavy Rain, China Meteorological Administration, Wuhan 430205, China. Electronic address: zhouyue@whihr.com.cn.
⁵ Department of Atmospheric Science, School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China.
⁶ Hebei Provincial Environmental Meteorological Center, Shijiazhuang 050021, China.

PMID: 34864026
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151951

Abstract

Regional transport of air pollutants is a key factor affecting air quality over the receptor region, where the meteorological mechanism of regional transport influence has not been fully understood. The Twain-Hu Basin (THB) in central China is located in the downwind area of major pollutant sources over central and eastern China (CEC) under the East Asian winter monsoonal winds. To understand the meteorological mechanism of regional PM_2.5 transport building a receptor region for heavy air pollution, an ensemble of 8 typical heavy air pollution events with regional PM_2.5 transport in January of 2015-2019 were selected objectively by using the MV-EOF (multivariable empirical orthogonal function) decomposition with multi-source observations, and the meteorological configurations driving the regional PM_2.5 transport and building a receptor in the THB with heavy air pollution were investigated. The results showed that PM_2.5 from the source area in northern China to the THB was actuated by cold air southward invasion with strong northerly winds in the lower troposphere, and the vertical structure of atmospheric circulation was characterized with the typical pattern of southward advance of cold front with the cold air confronting the warm air mass over the THB area. The warm air mass and the windward side of THB's basin terrain formed a "barrier" in regional transport of PM_2.5 over central China, which were conducive to accumulating PM_2.5 for heavy air pollution in the THB. Furthermore, an abnormal warm air layer in the middle troposphere acted as the upper "warm lid", suppressing the vertical PM_2.5 diffusion over the receptor region. With such the 3-D atmospheric structure, a key receptor region in the THB for heavy air pollution was built in regional PM_2.5 transport over China. These findings could enrich the scientific understanding of the meteorological mechanism on air pollution with regional transport of source-receptor air pollutants in atmospheric environment change.

Keywords: MV-EOF decomposition; Meteorological mechanism; Receptor region; Regional transport of air pollutants.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
Air Pollution* / analysis
China
Environmental Monitoring
Particulate Matter / analysis
Seasons

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter