Abstract
At present, few studies have focused on the impact of circulation patterns on aerosol pollution in the Pearl River delta region (PRD) region based on the objective circulation classification method. Based on PM2.5 observation data, meteorological observation data, Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) aerosol observation data and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) ERA (European Reanalysis)-Interim data in the PRD during 2013 to 2017, the air pollution level, meteorological conditions, and aerosol optical and radiation characteristics in different circulation patterns are studied in this paper. Using ECMWF ERA-Interim sea level pressure, nine circulation patterns were determined based on the T-mode principal component analysis (PCA) combined with the k-means clustering method. There were significant differences in PM2.5 values under different circulation patterns, indicating that the change of atmospheric circulation is an important factor driving the change of air quality. The prevailing wind in winter (northerly wind) facilitates the transport of pollutants from the north of the PRD and forms severe air pollution, while the prevailing wind in summer (southerly wind) brings clean air from the South China Sea; additionally, a high frequency of precipitation benefits the wet scavenging of pollutants, resulting in improved air quality in the PRD region. The impact of circulation patterns on the AOD (aerosol optical depth) is basically similar to that of the PM2.5 concentration. The study also found that the annual average total radiation was negatively correlated with the annual average PM2.5 concentration. In future, we plan to identify which methods and data are suitable for circulation classification in the PRD region.
Highlights
In recent years, China’s economic development has expanded rapidly
Based on a one-way analysis of variance between PM2.5 concentrations in two circulation patterns (Table 2), most of the differences in PM2.5 concentration corresponding to different circulation patterns are significant (p < 0.05), indicating that the evolution of atmospheric circulation is an important factor driving the change of air quality in the Pearl River delta (PRD) region
As far as we know, few studies have focused on the impact of circulation patterns on aerosol pollution in the PRD region based on an objective circulation classification method
Summary
China’s economic development has expanded rapidly. The demand and consumption of energy have increased significantly. The rapid economic development has led to an increase in pollutant emissions, and the acceleration of urbanization has led to the change of underlying surface types in the PRD region, which affects local circulation, pollutant diffusion and transport processes. As far as we know, few studies have focused on the relation between air quality and circulation patterns based on an objective classification method in the PRD region. Based on the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) ERA (European Reanalysis)-Interim reanalysis data, conventional meteorological station observation data, radiation observation data, pollutant concentration observation data, and aerosol optical depth (AOD) of Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) observation data, this paper classifies the circulation patterns using the objective weather classification method and analyzes the impact of different atmospheric circulations on the PM2.5 concentrations and AOD in the PRD region
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