Abstract
This study newly applies measurements from two geostationary satellites, the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) onboard the geostationary satellite Himawari-8 and the Geostationary Ocean Color imager (GOCI) onboard the geostationary satellite COMS, to evaluate a unique regional aerosol-transport model coupled to a non-hydrostatic icosahedral atmospheric model (NICAM) at a high resolution without any nesting technique and boundary conditions of the aerosols. Taking advantage of the unique capability of these geostationary satellites to measure aerosols with unprecedentedly high temporal resolution, we focus on a target area (115°E-155°E, 20°N-50°N) in East Asia in May 2016, which featured the periodic transport of industrial aerosols and a very heavy aerosol plume from Siberian wildfires. The aerosol optical thickness (AOT) fields are compared among the AHI, GOCI, MODIS, AERONET and NICAM data. The results show that both AHI- and GOCI-retrieved AOTs were generally comparable to the AERONET-retrieved ones, with high correlation coefficients of approximately 0.7 in May 2016. They also show that NICAM successfully captured the detailed horizontal distribution of AOT transported from Siberia to Japan on the most polluted day (18 May 2016). The monthly statistical metrics, including correlation between the model and either AHI or GOCI, are estimated to be >0.4 in 42–49% of the target area. With the aid of sensitivity model experiments with and without Siberian wildfires, it was found that a long-range transport of aerosols from Siberian wildfires (from as far as 3000 km) to Japan influenced the monthly mean aerosol levels, accounting for 7–35% of the AOT, 26–49% of the surface PM2.5 concentrations, and 25–66% of the aerosol extinction above 3 km in height over Japan. Therefore, the air pollutants from Siberian wildfire cannot be ignored for the spring over Japan.
Highlights
Understanding the spatial structure of air pollution in East Asia, which is one of the most polluted areas in the world, is essential to address environmental issues and their effects on human health
The Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI), and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data could not be used to determine a clear source for the plume because both the satellite-retrieved aerosol optical thickness (AOT) were limited by the presence of clouds and high albedo over land and because only the GOCI cannot cover the fire spots due to the limitation of coverage area over East Asia
The objective of this study was to evaluate the spatiotemporal variability of simulated aerosols, including anthropogenic and biomass burning-derived emissions, which are constantly transported from the East Asian continent to the ocean and Japan
Summary
Air pollution measurements are a useful tool to monitor air quality and have been continually conducted at observation sites. During the 2000s, remote-sensing methods such as Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) (Holben et al, 1998) and light detection and ranging (LIDAR) networks (Sugimoto et al, 2008) were developed to conduct such measurements. Polar-orbiting satellites with remote-sensing sensors were launched to measure air pollution, including the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites (https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/). The Atmospheric Environmental Regional Observation System (AEROS), including > 500 sites in Japan, was installed to monitor PM2.5 mass concentrations and has provided prompt reports that are regularly released through Japan's Ministry of the Environment (http://soramame.taiki.go.jp/).
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