Impact of synoptic climate system interaction on surface ozone in China during 1950–2014

Abstract

The effects of meteorological conditions controlled by specific synoptic patterns on regional surface ozone episodes have been widely discussed. However, the impacts of synoptic climate systems and their interaction on long-term variation of ozone are less known. In this study, we use the daily meteorological data and hourly surface ozone concentrations in the summer of 1950–2014 from CMIP6 to investigate the relationship between ozone variations and synoptic climate types (SCTs). Eight SCTs are identified by an objective circulation classification method of an R package called synoptReg. Our results show that the mainland of China is controlled by the low-pressure system for SCT1–5, while dominated by Siberian high for SCT6–8. During SCT1–5 days, the interactions of Asian continental low, Western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH), warm ridge at 700 hPa, high-level shallow Asian trough, westerly belt, and topography lead to high surface temperature, low relative humidity, and poor diffusion over Northern China with frequent ozone exceedance days. However, the low-level ozone concentrations over Northern China are shown under SCT6–8, affected by the weakened Asian continental low, enhanced Siberian high, stronger WPSH, and denser westerly belt. While over Southern China, ozone concentrations are higher for SCT6–8 than SCT1–5, due to the significantly reduced cloud and precipitation affected by the delivery of cold dry air mass from high latitudes to the South. The interdecadal variabilities of ozone during all SCTs may be controlled by the large-scale climate system of the East Asian monsoon.