Association of anthropogenic aerosols with subtropical drought in East Asia

Abstract

Anthropogenic aerosols play an important role in altering the radiation budget and Earth's climate. In this study, the association of anthropogenic aerosols with subtropical drought in East Asia is investigated with multisource data and simulations of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models. The result shows that the increase in anthropogenic aerosols partially contributes to the zonal drought at subtropical latitudes in East Asia from 1970. In East Asia, sulphate is the dominant type of anthropogenic aerosol and is mainly distributed over the southeastern China. Due to the sulphate aerosols, the geopotential height decreases/increases significantly at the upper‐/lower‐level atmosphere in the subtropical region, with a maximum variation at approximately 30°N. Consequently, the downward motion of air is intensified in the subtropical region. Ultimately, the precipitation amount in the vicinity of the subtropical region is significantly diminished, with a maximum decrease at approximately 30°N. In contrast, the sulphate aerosols could induce more precipitation over the tropical region. In conclusion, the anthropogenic aerosols have an important impact on precipitation in East Asia. In the future, with the intensification of human activities, the contribution of anthropogenic aerosols to aridification is an inevitable question.

Investigating the Potential Climatic Effects of Atmospheric Pollution across China under the National Clean Air Action Plan

“…According to the Fifth Assessment Report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global land and ocean temperatures increased by 0.85 • C during 1880-2012 [3,4]. GHGs, aerosols, and change of land use patterns due to anthropogenic activities have altered the Earth's radiative balance and albedo [5][6][7][8]. Alternations in the Earth's radiative balance, through complex mechanisms, are responsible for changes in temperature, precipitation, and other climatic variables.…”

The Lagged Effect of Anthropogenic Aerosol on East Asian Precipitation during the Summer Monsoon Season

“…East Asia, including China, is one of the major sources of atmospheric pollutants [16,17]. While AA emissions in East Asia have increased consistently after industrialization [18][19][20], the concentration of of this limitation, AOD is widely used to examine the role of aerosols on atmospheric phenomena because of a reliable satellite dataset for a long period of time [22,36,37,47,48].…”