The Impact of the Numbers of Monitoring Stations on the National and Regional Air Quality Assessment in China During 2013–18

China national air quality monitoring network has become the core data source for air quality assessment and management in China. However, during network construction, the significant change in numbers of monitoring sites with time is easily ignored, which brings uncertainty to air quality assessments. This study aims to analyze the impact of change in numbers of stations on national and regional air quality assessments in China during 2013–18. The results indicate that the change in numbers of stations has different impacts on fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and ozone concentration assessments. The increasing number of sites makes the estimated national and regional PM_2.5 concentration slightly lower by 0.6?2.2 μg m^?3 and 1.4?6.0 μg m^?3 respectively from 2013 to 2018. The main reason is that over time, the monitoring network expands from the urban centers to the suburban areas with low population densities and pollutant emissions. For ozone, the increasing number of stations affects the long-term trends of the estimated concentration, especially the national trends, which changed from a slight upward trend to a downward trend in 2014?15. Besides, the impact of the increasing number of sites on ozone assessment exhibits a seasonal difference at the 0.05 significance level in that the added sites make the estimated concentration higher in winter and lower in summer. These results suggest that the change in numbers of monitoring sites is an important uncertainty factor in national and regional air quality assessments, that needs to be considered in long-term concentration assessment, trend analysis, and trend driving force analysis.     

The influence of tropical Indian Ocean warming on the Southern Hemispheric stratospheric polar vortex

During the past decades, concurrent with global warming, most of global oceans, particularly the tropical Indian Ocean, have become warmer. Meanwhile, the Southern Hemispheric stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) exhibits a deepening trend. Although previous modeling studies reveal that radiative cooling effect of ozone depletion plays a dominant role in causing the deepening of SPV, the simulated ozone-depletion-induced SPV deepening is stronger than the observed. This suggests that there must be other factors canceling a fraction of the influence of the ozone depletion. Whether the tropical Indian Ocean warming (IOW) is such a factor is unclear. This issue is addressed by conducting ensemble atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) experiments. And one idealized IOW with the amplitude as the observed is prescribed to force four AGCMs. The results show that the IOW tends to warm the southern polar stratosphere, and thus weakens SPV in austral spring to summer. Hence, it offsets a fraction of the effect of the ozone depletion. This implies that global warming will favor ozone recovery, since a warmer southern polar stratosphere is un-beneficial for the formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), which is a key factor to ozone depletion chemical reactions. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 40775053 and 90711004), National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB421401), and Innovation Key Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant Nos. KZCXZ-YW-Q11-03, KZCZ2-YW-Q03-08)     

A New Way to Study Water-Vapor Absorption Coefficient

In the visible spectrum, the atmospheric attenuations to sunlight mainly include aerosol scattering, atmospheric molecule Rayleigh scattering and ozone absorption, while in the near-infrared spectrum （from 650 nm to 1 000 nm）, we must take water-vapor absorption into account. Based on the atmospheric correction theory, using spectrum irradiance data measured by Instantaneous Ground spectrometer, ozone content measured by Microtops Ⅱ ozone monitor, water-vapor content and aerosol optical thickness measured by sun photometer, we give a new way to study water-vapor absorption to sunlight, and the result shows that the main peak values of water-vapor absorption coefficients are 0.025 cm^-1, 0.073 cm^-1, 0.124 cm^-1, 0.090 cm^-1, 0.141 cm^-1 and 0.417 cm^-1, which respectively lie at 692 nm, 725 nm, 761 nm, 818 nm, 912 nm and 937 nm.     

长江三角洲地区对流层臭氧的变化趋势

根据TOR卫星数据分析,我国长江三角洲地区对流层O3柱含量的长期变化就全年和大多数月份而言均为增长趋势,1978-2000年间其年均值的增长趋势为0.82 DU/10 a。这种长期变化趋势所引起的气候效应及其对大气氧化性的影响值得进一步研究。结果表明,长江三角洲地区对流层O3柱含量的季节变化与该地区的临安区域大气本底站的地面O3季节变化有着显著的相关关系,临安站的观测数据具有区域代表性。     

NOx or VOC Limitation in East German Ozone Plumes?

The ozone forming potential of VOCs and NO_x for plumes observed from several cities and a power plant in eastern Germany was investigated. A closed box model with a gas phase photochemical reaction mechanism was employed to simulate several scenarios based upon aircraft observations. In several of the scenarios, the initial concentrations of NO_x, VOCs, and SO₂, were reduced to study the factors limiting the O₃ production. Ozone production was limited by the initial VOC concentrations for all of the simulated plumes. Higher O₃ concentrations were produced with reduced initial NO_x. In one sample with high SO₂ mixing ratios (>100 ppb), SO₂ was also identified as a significant contributor to the production of O₃.     

多普勒天气雷达站址视程的客观分析技术

开发了多普勒天气雷达候选站址视程的客观分析软件.该软件根据候选站及其四周一定范围内的地理信息, 十分快速地求算和自动绘制雷达单站的遮蔽角图、系列等射束高度图和多个雷达站Mercator或Lambert投影方式下的等射束高度拼图, 提供了分析和评价候选站雷达有效视程和相关雷达网共同覆盖效果以及定量应用雷达资料的客观工具.     

Influence of Major Stratospheric Sudden Warming on the Unprecedented Cold Wave in East Asia in January 2021

An unprecedented cold wave intruded into East Asia in early January 2021 and led to record-breaking or historical extreme low temperatures over vast regions.This study shows that a major stratospheric sudden warming(SSW)event at the beginning of January 2021 exerted an important influence on this cold wave.The major SSW event occurred on 2 January 2021 and subsequently led to the displacement of the stratospheric polar vortex to the East Asian side.Moreover,the SSW event induced the stratospheric warming signal to propagate downward to the mid-to-lower troposphere,which not only enhanced the blocking in the Urals-Siberia region and the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation,but also shifted the tropospheric polar vortex off the pole.The displaced tropospheric polar vortex,Ural blocking,and another downstream blocking ridge over western North America formed a distinct inverted omega-shaped circulation pattern(IOCP)in the East Asia-North Pacific sector.This IOCP was the most direct and impactful atmospheric pattern causing the cold wave in East Asia.The IOCP triggered a meridional cell with an upward branch in East Asia and a downward branch in Siberia.The meridional cell intensified the Siberian high and low-level northerly winds,which also favored the invasion of the cold wave into East Asia.Hence,the SSW event and tropospheric circulations such as the IOCP,negative phase of Arctic Oscillation,Ural blocking,enhanced Siberian high,and eastward propagation of Rossby wave eventually induced the outbreak of an unprecedented cold wave in East Asia in early January 2021.     

Study on horizontal relative diffusion in the troposphere and lower stratosphere

The behaviour of relative diffusion theory and Gifford’s random-force theory for long-range atmospheric diffusion is examined. When a puff scale is smaller than the Lagrangian length scale, 2KTL, an accelerative relative diffusion region exists, i.e., σy∝t3/2. While the puff diffusion enters a two-dimensional turbulence region, in which the diffusion scale is larger than 500 km, or time scale is larger than 1 day, divergence and convergence are main cause of horizontal diffusion. Between the two above-mentioned regimes, diffusion deviation is given byσy=2KTL. The large-scale horizontal relative diffusion parameters were obtained by analyzing the data of radioactive cloud width collected in air nuclear tests.     

金沙本底站空气质量与颗粒物浓度变化特征分析

利用华中区域代表性站点金沙国家大气本底站2007—2018年的PM2.5、PM10颗粒物质量浓度数据,2019年3月—2019年6月反应性气体数据,对华中区域空气质量进行整体评价,并分析了颗粒物浓度的变化特征及其影响因素.结果表明,反应性气体CO、SO2、NO、NO2质量浓度其日平均最大值、平均值均达到一级标准,O3日...     

The Spatial and Temporal Variability of Global Stratospheric Gravity Waves and Their Activity during Sudden Stratospheric Warming Revealed by COSMIC Measurements

This study investigates the spatial and temporal variability of global stratospheric gravity waves (GWs) and the characteristics of GW activity during sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) using the GPS radio occultation measurements from the COSMIC mission during September 2006 to May 2013. Corresponding to the COSMIC RO observational window and analysis method, GW potential energy (Ep) with vertical scales no shorter than ～2 km is resolved. It is found that the distributions of GW Ep over 20-30 km and 30-38 km show similar spatial and seasonal variations. The variations of GW Ep with altitude and latitude along the westerly wind are identified in different seasons over 60°-80°W. In the middle and high latitudes, seasonal cycles are distinct in the time-latitude and time-altitude distributions of GW activities, which show larger Ep in winters when westerly wind dominates and smaller Ep in summers when easterly wind dominates. The influence of quasi-biennial oscillation on GW activity is recognized in the tropics. GW Ep enhances closely following the occurrence of minor SSW events; while during major events, GW Ep may not enhance, and sometimes may even weaken, in the regions where reversals of zonal wind occur, probably caused by the filtering impact of the 0 m s-1 wind level on the GWs.