Seasonal differences in continental outflows and marine emissions of organic aerosols in the East China Sea: Insight from the variation of saccharides

Abstract

Water-soluble organic species play an important role in cloud condensation nuclei and cloud formation in marine atmosphere. The present study investigated the influence of continental outflows and marine biogenic emission on organic aerosol in the East China Sea from the perspective of saccharides during a cold season and a warm season in 2019, respectively. Driven by the East Asian continental outflows during the cold season, levoglucosan emitted from biomass burning were the dominant species and were mostly concentrated in fine mode (<2.5 μm). Biogenic species, including primary sugars and sugar alcohols, were the dominant species in warm season, accounting for a high fraction of WSOC with 5.48 ± 3.29%, and were mostly distributed in coarse mode (2.5–10 μm). This trend was consistent with sea salt components (Na+ and Cl−) when air masses originated from oceanic areas, suggesting that marine emissions could be the major sources of saccharides during the warm season. Particularly, a dramatic increase in biogenic saccharides (glucose, sucrose, mannitol and arabitol) was observed when experienced the “Super Typhoon Lekima”. Concentrations of these species were 2 to 5 times higher than that in normal days, illustrating the significant impact of extreme weather events on the emissions of biogenic aerosols in marine area. This study improves the understanding of combined impacts of continental outflows and marine emissions on water-soluble organic species in the East China Sea, again highlighting the important contribution of marine biogenic emissions under extreme weather conditions.