Variations and possible causes of the December PM2.5 in Eastern China during 2000–2020

High air pollutions of PM2.5 concentrations have become a serious environmental problem in China during recent decades, causing significant influences on urban air quality and human health. In the study, we investigate the variations of the December PM2.5 in Eastern China and the possible causes during 2000–2020. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis is employed to reveal the dominant patterns of PM2.5 variability in Eastern China. The EOF1 shows a consistent variability in the whole of the Eastern China, which reflects a consistent emission pattern in Eastern China in past two decades. The EOF2 exhibits a North-South dipole pattern, which is closely tied to the changes of atmospheric circulations. The increase of PM2.5 in the North Eastern China is mainly related to the decrease of wind speed, the decrease of boundary layer height and the increase of inversion temperature, while the decrease of PM2.5 in the South Eastern China is affected by the increase of local precipitation. Two atmospheric wave trains are identified that affect the dipole distribution of PM2.5 in Eastern China. The southern one is affected by ENSO, and the northern one is jointly affected by ENSO, sea surface temperature of Labrador Sea and sea ice concentration near Kara Sea. Finally, we reconstructed a comprehensive atmospheric external forcing index based on these factors. We find that the comprehensive index can well reproduce the North-South dipole distribution of PM2.5 in Eastern China, indicating the plausible effects of the atmospheric external forcings and the prediction potential for the variations of PM2.5 in Eastern China.

[1]  C. Garfinkel,et al.  Different ENSO teleconnections over East Asia in early and late winter: role of precipitation anomalies in the tropical Indian Ocean–far western Pacific , 2022, Journal of Climate.

[2]  L. Sheng,et al.  Possible Dynamic Mechanisms of High‐ and Low‐Latitude Wave Trains Over Eurasia and Their Impacts on Air Pollution Over the North China Plain in Early Winter , 2022, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

[3]  Q. Xiao,et al.  Spatiotemporal continuous estimates of daily 1 km PM2.5 from 2000 to present under the Tracking Air Pollution in China (TAP) framework , 2022, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

[4]  Peng Hu,et al.  Distinct impacts of ENSO on haze pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region between early and late winters , 2021, Journal of Climate.

[5]  Q. Xiao,et al.  Tracking Air Pollution in China: Near Real-Time PM2.5 Retrievals from Multisource Data Fusion. , 2021, Environmental science & technology.

[6]  Q. Xiao,et al.  Separating emission and meteorological contributions to long-term PM2.5 trends over eastern China during 2000–2018 , 2021, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

[7]  J. Zhang,et al.  How do multi-scale interactions affect extreme precipitation in eastern central Asia? , 2021 .

[8]  Huijun Wang,et al.  Roles of climate variability on the rapid increases of early winter haze pollution in North China after 2010 , 2020, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

[9]  Jane Liu,et al.  A teleconnection between sea surface temperature in the central and eastern Pacific and wintertime haze variations in southern China , 2020, Theoretical and Applied Climatology.

[10]  J. Thepaut,et al.  The ERA5 global reanalysis , 2020, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

[11]  Danlu Chen,et al.  Influence of meteorological conditions on PM2.5 concentrations across China: A review of methodology and mechanism. , 2020, Environment international.

[12]  Hua Zhang,et al.  Contrasting impacts of two types of El Niño events on winter haze days in China's Jing-Jin-Ji region , 2020, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

[13]  Lin Wang,et al.  Multidecadal Changes in the Influence of the Arctic Oscillation on the East Asian Surface Air Temperature in Boreal Winter , 2019, Atmosphere.

[14]  Jiming Hao,et al.  Drivers of improved PM2.5 air quality in China from 2013 to 2017 , 2019, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[15]  R. Wu,et al.  Attribution of the East Asian Winter Temperature Trends During 1979–2018: Role of External Forcing and Internal Variability , 2019, Geophysical Research Letters.

[16]  Huijun Wang,et al.  Interdecadal Variation of the Relationship between East Asian Water Vapor Transport and Tropical Pacific Sea Surface Temperatures during January and Associated Mechanisms , 2019, Journal of Climate.

[17]  H. Liao,et al.  Severe winter haze days in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region from 1985 to 2017 and the roles of anthropogenic emissions and meteorology , 2019, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

[18]  R. Wu,et al.  Diversity of the Wintertime Arctic Oscillation Pattern among CMIP5 Models: Role of the Stratospheric Polar Vortex , 2019, Journal of Climate.

[19]  Huijun Wang,et al.  Possible Relationship between the Chukchi Sea Ice in the Early Winter and the February Haze Pollution in the North China Plain , 2019, Journal of Climate.

[20]  Jianping Guo,et al.  Temporal disparity of the atmospheric systems contributing to interannual variation of wintertime haze pollution in the North China Plain , 2019, International Journal of Climatology.

[21]  T. Zhou,et al.  How does El Niño-Southern Oscillation modulate the interannual variability of winter haze days over eastern China? , 2019, The Science of the total environment.

[22]  Zhiwei Zhu,et al.  Two pathways of how remote SST anomalies drive the interannual variability of autumnal haze days in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, China , 2019, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

[23]  R. Wu,et al.  Revisiting the Northern Mode of East Asian Winter Monsoon Variation and Its Response to Global Warming , 2018, Journal of Climate.

[24]  M. Shao,et al.  An observation-based perspective of winter haze days in four major polluted regions of China , 2018, National science review.

[25]  Thomas M. Smith,et al.  Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature, Version 5 (ERSSTv5): Upgrades, Validations, and Intercomparisons , 2017 .

[26]  Ying Xu,et al.  Projected Changes in Haze Pollution Potential in China: An Ensemble of Regional Climate Model Simulations , 2017 .

[27]  Robert E. Dickinson,et al.  PM2.5 Pollution in China and How It Has Been Exacerbated by Terrain and Meteorological Conditions , 2017 .

[28]  Hui Xu,et al.  Declining frequency of summertime local‐scale precipitation over eastern China from 1970 to 2010 and its potential link to aerosols , 2017, Geophysical Research Letters.

[29]  Wen-xing Wang,et al.  The contribution of residential coal combustion to PM 2.5 pollution over China's Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in winter , 2017 .

[30]  Yuhang Wang,et al.  Arctic sea ice, Eurasia snow, and extreme winter haze in China , 2017, Science Advances.

[31]  Chuanglin Fang,et al.  The Effect of Economic Growth, Urbanization, and Industrialization on Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) Concentrations in China. , 2016, Environmental science & technology.

[32]  Cheng Sun,et al.  Decadal variability in the occurrence of wintertime haze in central eastern China tied to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation , 2016, Scientific Reports.

[33]  Huopo Chen,et al.  Understanding the Recent Trend of Haze Pollution in Eastern China: Roles of Climate Change , 2016 .

[34]  Renhe Zhang,et al.  Interannual variation of the wintertime fog–haze days across central and eastern China and its relation with East Asian winter monsoon , 2016 .

[35]  Ling Wang,et al.  Long-term trend and spatiotemporal variations of haze over China by satellite observations from 1979 to 2013 , 2015 .

[36]  W. Tao,et al.  Diverse Influences of ENSO on the East Asian–Western Pacific Winter Climate Tied to Different ENSO Properties in CMIP5 Models , 2015 .

[37]  Zhili Zuo,et al.  PM2.5 in China: Measurements, sources, visibility and health effects, and mitigation , 2014 .

[38]  R. Wu,et al.  The Climatology and Interannual Variability of the East Asian Winter Monsoon in CMIP5 Models , 2014 .

[39]  Peng Xu,et al.  Haze, air pollution, and health in China , 2013, The Lancet.

[40]  J. Janowiak,et al.  The Version 2 Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) Monthly Precipitation Analysis (1979-Present) , 2003 .

[41]  Elizabeth C. Kent,et al.  Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century , 2003 .

[42]  H. Nakamura,et al.  A Formulation of a Phase-Independent Wave-Activity Flux for Stationary and Migratory Quasigeostrophic Eddies on a Zonally Varying Basic Flow , 2001 .

[43]  R. Hirsch,et al.  Techniques of trend analysis for monthly water quality data , 1982 .

[44]  H. Kan,et al.  Evaluation of gap-filling approaches in satellite-based daily PM2.5 prediction models , 2021 .

[45]  Bin Guo,et al.  Influence of Meteorological Factors and VOCs on PM2.5during Severe Air Pollution Period in Shijiazhuang in Winter , 2016 .

[46]  Qiang Li,et al.  Meteorological conditions for the persistent severe fog and haze event over eastern China in January 2013 , 2013, Science China Earth Sciences.