Atmospheric Chemistry of the East Asian Northwest Pacific Region

Abstract

The East Asian Continental Rim region is characterized by high and rapidly growing anthropogenic emissions of NOX, SO2, hydrocarbons, and other air pollutants due to its high and growing population density and, in some regions, intensive industrial development. Emissions of NOX and SO2 from the East Asian region have been growing at a rate of about 4% per year in the last decade, which is in marked contrast to the trends in Western Europe and North America where those emissions have been stabilized or started to decline after 1980. The main focus of the IGAC-APARE (East Asian/North Pacific Regional Experiment) is to understand the increasing human impact on the chemical processes occurring in the atmosphere of the East Asian Northwest Pacific Ocean. Scientists from Pacific Rim countries (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Russia) as well as the U.S. and Australia have joined to steer the APARE activity.