Transport of Asian aerosols to the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

Abstract Recent efforts reported that the aerosols even can be transported from a long distance to the Pacific Ocean (PO) and potentially influence the marine primary productivity. In this study, based on the multi-source satellite observations and meteorological reanalysis data, the source and transport of aerosols from Asia to the PO region are investigated. The result shows that the satellites capture 104 aerosol events during 2007–2016, which occur in Asia, and can further influence the PO region. The Asian source regions of aerosol over the PO region mainly include eastern and central China (ECC), eastern and central Russia (ECR), Inner Mongolia and Gansu of China and Mongolia (IMGM), and Southeast Asia (SEA), corresponding to sulfate, organic carbon, dust, and organic carbon aerosol sources, respectively. Among the aerosol events detected over the PO region, most of them are sourced from ECC region, accounting for 54.8% of the total aerosol events, followed by ECR region (accounting for 22.1%). Statistical analyses show that, during 2007–2016, the aerosol events observed over the PO region mainly occur in the spring (47 times), followed by the autumn (25 times); and the least of them occur in the winter (14 times). Correspondingly, the months with the most and least aerosol events are March and February, respectively. When the aerosols enter the PO region, the average optical depths of aerosols sourcing from ECC, ECR, IMGM and SEA are 0.24, 0.38, 0.29 and 0.19, respectively. Besides, the transport of aerosols from Asia to the PO region is mainly influenced by westerly winds and troughs of low-pressure system. This study can provide some evidence of understanding the aerosol type, physical and optical properties over the PO region.