Influence of the Anthropogenic Fugitive, Combustion, and Industrial Dust on Winter Air Quality in East Asia

Jaein I Jeong,Rokjin J Park

doi:10.3390/atmos10120790

Abstract

We estimate the effects of the anthropogenic fugitive, combustion, and industrial dust (AFCID) on winter air quality in China and South Korea for November 2015–March 2016 using the Comprehensive Regional Emissions inventory for Atmospheric Transport Experiment (KU-CREATE) monthly anthropogenic emission inventory in conjunction with a nested version of GEOS-Chem. Including AFCID emissions in models results in a better agreement with observations and a reduced normalized mean bias of −28% compared to −40% without AFCID. Furthermore, we find that AFCID amounts to winter PM10 concentrations of 17.9 μg m−3 (17%) in eastern China (30−40° N, 112−120° E) with the largest contribution of AFCID to winter PM10 concentrations of up to 45 μg m−3 occurring in eastern China causing a significant impact on air quality to downwind regions. Including AFCID in the model results in an increase of simulated winter PM10 concentrations in South Korea by 3.1 μg m−3 (9%), of which transboundary transport from China accounts for more than 70% of this increased PM10 concentration. Our results indicate that AFCID is an essential factor for winter PM10 concentrations over East Asia and its sources and physical characteristics need to be better quantified to improve PM air quality forecasts.

Highlights

Severe environmental pollution due to rapid economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization has become a social problem in East Asia
We investigate the impact of AFCID on winter air quality in East Asia using the sensitivity tests of AFCID emissions
These results indicate that AFCID from China contributes significantly to increasing PM10 concentration in South Korea in the winter season

Summary

Introduction

Severe environmental pollution due to rapid economic growth, industrialization, and urbanization has become a social problem in East Asia. Global and regional models estimate aerosol concentrations comprising carbonaceous, inorganic ions, mineral dust, and sea salt [13,14], with the first two components mainly contributed by human activity and the latter two assumed to be caused naturally by wind from the arid desert and ocean In addition to these components, recent emission studies suggest that anthropogenic fugitive, combustion, and industrial dust (AFCID) are major sources for aerosol concentrations in Atmosphere 2019, 10, 790; doi:10.3390/atmos10120790 www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere. Since global models tend to underestimate aerosol loadings, including missing AFCID sources in the models will reduce the bias and more accurately estimate the effects of aerosols on air quality and human health To better understand this relationship, we use a nested version of the GEOS-Chem along with the latest AFCID emission inventory to quantify the impact of AFCID on winter aerosol concentrations in East Asia

Model and Methods

Impacts of AFCID on PM10 Concentrations

Scatter

Summary and Discussion