Abstract
This paper aims to investigate the potential contribution of biomass burning in PM2.5 pollution in Northern Thailand. We applied the coupled atmospheric and air pollution model which is based on the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and a Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT). The model output was compared to the ground-based measurements from the Pollution Control Department (PCD) to examine the model performance. As a result of the model evaluation, the meteorological variables agreed well with observations using the Index of Agreement (IOA) with ranges of 0.57 to 0.79 for temperature and 0.32 to 0.54 for wind speed, while the fractional biases of temperature and wind speed were 1.3 to 2.5 °C and 1.2 to 2.1 m/s. Analysis of the model and hotspots from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) found that biomass burning from neighboring countries has greater potential to contribute to air pollution in northern Thailand than national emissions, which is indicated by the number of hotspot locations in Burma being greater than those in Thailand by two times under the influence of two major channels of Asian Monsoons, including easterly and northwesterly winds that bring pollutants from neighboring counties towards northern Thailand.
Highlights
Air pollution is a widespread problem that affects human health and other atmospheric aspects, i.e., it can contribute to the warming of the atmosphere and can affect rain and cloud patterns
To analyze the potential contribution of biomass burning in air pollution in Northern Thailand, the meteorological conditions and tracing of the dispersed emission sources due to biomass burning from many locations are required
We use the Lagrange particle dispersion model known as Hybrid Single-particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) with meteorological data from the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) simulation in March 2016 to determine the transport of particle air parcels
Summary
Air pollution is a widespread problem that affects human health and other atmospheric aspects, i.e., it can contribute to the warming of the atmosphere and can affect rain and cloud patterns. According to a 2014 World Health Organization (WHO) report the premature deaths of about 7 million people worldwide were caused by air pollution [1]. Southeast Asia is a region with frequent air pollution problems every year, at the beginning of the year, from January to April. Biomass burning strongly dominates air pollution from the regional to local scale in Southeast Asia [3]. Widespread biomass burning occurrences and particulate pollutants from human activities other than biomass burning play important roles in degrading the air quality in Southeast Asia [4,5]. Larger villages like Chiang Mai face increasing problems due to traffic jams, but farmers burn stubble in preparation for the coming rain and rice planting at this time of the year, and these narrow valleys provide perfect bowls for this smog and smoke
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