Abstract
Asian dust can be transported at least one full circuit around the globe. During the transportation, dust can interact with local air-borne dust and pollutants, and has a profound impact on the environment. A novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been affecting human activities worldwide since early 2020. The Chinese government has implemented emergency control measures. Since April 2020, control measures to reduce anthropogenic emissions have been gradually reduced. The optical properties of aerosols during the dust transport were affected by meteorological conditions, local environmental conditions and human activities. Therefore, two dust weather processes in March 2018 and March 2020 were screened under similar meteorological fields and transportation paths, which were mainly affected by human activities. Based on lidar data, in East China, compared with 2018, the average aerosol optical depth (AOD) of all types of aerosols at 0–4 km in 2020 decreased by 55.48%, while the AOD of dust aerosols decreased by 43.59%. The average particle depolarization ratio and color ratio decreased by 40.33 and 10.56% respectively. Due to the reduction of anthropogenic emissions in China (detected by lidar), the concentration of surface PM2.5 decreased by 57.47%. This indicated that due to the decrease in human activities caused by COVID-19 control measures, the optical properties of aerosols were significantly reduced during dust weather process in eastern China. However, in the Pacific region, compared with 2018, the AOD values of 0–1 km layer and 1–6 km layer in 2020 increased by 56.4% and decreased by 29.2% respectively. The difference between the two contributions of dust aerosols was very small. Meanwhile, compared with 2018, China’s near surface pollutants decreased significantly in 2020, indicating that the near surface AOD of the Pacific in 2020 was mainly contributed by local pollutants. This study was of great significance to the study of long-range and cross regional transport of pollutants.
Highlights
Atmospheric aerosols can affect the energy budget of the earth (Twomey, 1977; Albrecht, 1989; Garrett and Zhao, 2006; Zhao and Garrett, 2015)
During the transportation of dust aerosols, it carries some mineral aerosols which can interact with high-concentration sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), organic matter (VOCs) and other pollutants emitted by urban coal burning and motor vehicle exhaust by anthropogenic sources (Huang et al, 2010)
We compared the changes of aerosol optical properties during two dust weather processes under similar meteorological conditions in March 2018 and 2020
Summary
Atmospheric aerosols can affect the energy budget of the earth (Twomey, 1977; Albrecht, 1989; Garrett and Zhao, 2006; Zhao and Garrett, 2015). Dust aerosol is an important part of atmospheric aerosols. Dust aerosols remain an important environmental pollutant in North China (Zheng et al, 2020). It was reported that the Asian dust can be transported at least one full circuit around the globe (Uno et al, 2009). Asian dust brings both the high concentration of minerals and pollutants to the downstream areas. During the transportation of dust aerosols, it carries some mineral aerosols which can interact with high-concentration sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), organic matter (VOCs) and other pollutants emitted by urban coal burning and motor vehicle exhaust by anthropogenic sources (Huang et al, 2010)
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