Agricultural Fires and Their Potential Impacts on Regional Air Quality over China

Shuping Zha,Shuanqin Zhang,Quanfang Wang,Tiantao Cheng,Jianmin Chen,Guanghan Huang,Xiang Li

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2012.10.0277

Shuping Zha, Shuanqin Zhang + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2012.10.0277

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Abstract

The potential impacts of agricultural fires (agri-fires) on regional air quality over China were examined using active fire products derived from satellite remote sensing and air mass trajectory modeling from 2009 to 2010. Agri-fires were found in most administrative areas. More than 80% of the agri-fires were in the heartlands of agricultural regions such as Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong and Henan Provinces. Agri-fires had a seasonal pattern, with two distinct peaks in summer and autumn harvest periods, especially in June (61–86%) and October (5–14%). Agri-fire smoke was transported in the atmosphere on a continental scale in three directions, moving northeasterly, northwesterly and southwesterly away from source areas. Particles from agri-fire smoke contributed more than 35% of aerosol optical depth (AOD) over regions of the Jiaodong Peninsular, the North Plain, East China and other areas, and exceeded 60% in some areas of Shandong, Henan and Jiangsu Provinces. In the boundary layer atmosphere, particles from agri-fire smoke contributed more than 29% of PM10 in parts of Anhui, Jiangsu and Shandong Provinces. Due to agri-fires the amount of PM10 was highly correlated (R2 = 0.6) with the smoke air masses in the main potential sink regions, and the mean PM10 during the summer harvest of 2010 reached 0.24 mg/m3, far higher than the adjacent periods without smoke.

Highlights

Particles and trace gases emitted from biomass burning influence atmospheric chemistry and aerosol physical, chemical, optical and radiative properties (Crutzen and Andreae, 1990; Andreae and Merlet, 2001; Kim et al, 2011; Reddy et al, 2012; Salako et al, 2012)
The potential impacts of agricultural fires on regional air quality over China were examined using active fire products derived from satellite remote sensing and air mass trajectory modeling from 2009 to 2010
This paper presents the spatial distributions of nationwide agri-fires in view of relatively longer periods using satellite remote sensing data of active agri-fire sites over China from 2009 to 2010

Summary

Introduction

Particles and trace gases emitted from biomass burning influence atmospheric chemistry and aerosol physical, chemical, optical and radiative properties (Crutzen and Andreae, 1990; Andreae and Merlet, 2001; Kim et al, 2011; Reddy et al, 2012; Salako et al, 2012). Streets et al (2003) and Yan et al (2006) estimated that 17–25.6% of total agricultural residue production or 110–157.5 Tg of crop wastes were burned in the field in China every year. Based on in situ measurements, many studies traced the transport routes of remote agri-fire smoke in the atmosphere, and estimated the impact of these pollutants on the air quality of observation sites (Han et al, 2008; Yang et al, 2008; Cheng et al, 2010; Zhang et al, 2010). Other studies used the wildfire products derived from satellite remote sensing to analyze the pollution events (e.g., haze) caused by agri-fires, and to study their impacts on urban air quality within downwind regions

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