Meteorological conditions for the persistent severe fog and haze event over eastern China in January 2013

Abstract

In January 2013, a severe fog and haze event (FHE) of strong intensity, long duration, and extensive coverage occurred in eastern China. The present study investigates meteorological conditions for this FHE by diagnosing both its atmospheric background fields and daily evolution in January 2013. The results show that a weak East Asian winter monsoon existed in January 2013. Over eastern China, the anomalous southerly winds in the middle and lower troposphere are favorable for more water vapor transported to eastern China. An anomalous high at 500 hPa suppresses convection. The weakened surface winds are favorable for the fog and haze concentrating in eastern China. The reduction of the vertical shear of horizontal winds weakens the synoptic disturbances and vertical mixing of atmosphere. The anomalous inversion in near-surface increases the stability of surface air. All these meteorological background fields in January 2013 were conducive to the maintenance and development of fog and haze over eastern China. The diagnosis of the daily evolution of the FHE shows that the surface wind velocity and the vertical shear of horizontal winds in the middle and lower troposphere can exert dynamic effects on fog and haze. The larger (smaller) they are, the weaker (stronger) the fog and haze are. The thermodynamic effects include stratification instability in middle and lower troposphere and the inversion and dew-point deficit in near-surface. The larger (smaller) the stratification instability and the inversion are, the stronger (weaker) the fog and haze are. Meanwhile, the smaller (larger) the dewpoint deficit is, the stronger (weaker) the fog and haze are. Based on the meteorological factors, a multi-variate linear regression model is set up. The model results show that the dynamic and thermodynamic effects on the variance of the fog and haze evolution are almost the same. The contribution of the meteorological factors to the variance of the daily fog and haze evolution reaches 0.68, which explains more than 2/3 of the variance.