Seasonal and Regional Characteristics of Aerosol Pollution in East and Southeast Asia

Abstract

The atmospheric aerosol distribution in Asia is complex because it is influenced by both natural phenomena and human activities. In this article, multifaceted approach using satellite observations and numerical model simulation shows seasonal and regional variations of the aerosol distribution over Asia. Asia covers a large area; however, this article is limited to East and Southeast Asia. The aerosol optical thickness (AOT) in the inland desert area is normally high in spring and dusty aerosols are widely spread with the wind. The AOT values are high in summer over East Asia. A high AOT caused by biomass burning plumes is observed in autumn over Southeast Asia and in spring over Siberia and heavy air pollution occurs in Beijing in winter, a very well-known phenomenon. These phenomena caused by heavy aerosol concentration were determined based on Aqua/MODIS data and aerosol characteristics retrievals and estimated the aerosol characteristics. Furthermore, the impact of aerosols on the climate assessed by numerical model simulations suggest that aerosols reduce solar radiation and therefore the Earth's surface temperature. In addition to these influences on the radiation budget, aerosols have a significant potential to change the circulation fields.

Algorithms for the classification and characterization of aerosols: utility verification of near-UV satellite observations

“…A detailed description of this procedure was presented in previous studies. 6,21 The dots in Fig. 13 denote the ADEOS-2/GLI data over the target on August 20, 2003.…”

“…Moreover, in urban areas, increasing amounts of small anthropogenic particle emissions are causing an increase in the concentrations of harmful air pollutants, specifically, the well-known suspended particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) in the atmosphere. 5,6 Thus, efficient aerosol retrieval algorithms are required, especially for satellite data on a global scale.…”

Light absorption and emissions inventory of humic-like substances from simulated rainforest biomass burning in Southeast Asia

“…Streets et al (2003) reported that BB in tropical forest fires accounted for 73% of the total burning activities every year in Southeast Asia. Recent studies showed that forest burning is the main source of air pollution in this region (Lee et al, 2017;Nakata et al, 2018). However, little is known about the influence of different vegetation types on the HULIS emitted from biomass fires in Southeast Asia.…”

Effects of Mountains on Aerosols Determined by AERONET/DRAGON/J‐ALPS Measurements and Regional Model Simulations

“…First, the 20 March, for which the results of field observations are shown in Figure 4, was considered. Satellite observations and numerical model simulations show that aerosol concentrations are high from spring to summer over East Asia (Nakata et al, 2018). Spring is the season when aerosols from mainland China are especially likely to be transported to Japan (Nakata et al, 2015).…”