Simulating dry deposition fluxes of PM10 and particulate inorganic nitrogen over the eastern China seas during a severe Asian dust event using WRF-Chem model

A WRF-Chem model including a comprehensive gas-phase nitrogen chemistry module was used to simulate a severe dust event appearing in the eastern China on 19–25 March, 2002. The modeling result well reproduced PM10 concentrations in various distances from the dust sources and the transport pathway of the dust strom. The results showed that both the concentrations and the dry deposition fluxes of PM10 increased over the China seas during the dust event following the passage of a cold front system. The maximum fluxes of PM10 in the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea during the dust event were 5.5 and 8.4 times of those before the event, respectively. However, the temporal variations of the dry deposition fluxes of particulate inorganic nitrogen differed over the Yellow Sea from those over the East China Sea. Nitrate and ammonium in the whole northern China rapidly decreased because of the intrusion of dust-loaded air on 19 March. The dust plume arrived in the Yellow Sea on 20 March, decreasing the particulate inorganic nitrogen in mass concentration accordingly. The minimum dry deposition fluxes of nitrate and ammonium in the Yellow Sea were about 3/5 and 1/6 of those before the dust arrival, respectively. In contrast, when the dust plume crossed over the Yangtze Delta area, it became abundant in nitrate and ammonium and increased the concentrations and dry deposition fluxes of particulate inorganic nitrogen over the East China Sea, where the maximum dry deposition fluxes of nitrate and ammonium increased approximately by 4.1 and 2.6 times of those prior to the dust arrival.