This article was submitted to Atmosphere and Climate, a section of the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science
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Heavy PM2.5 (particulate matter with an aerodynamics diameter less than 2.5 μm) pollution frequently happens in Wuhan under unfavorable meteorological conditions. To comprehensively understand the complex impact of both regional-scale synoptic forcing and local-scale processes within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) on air quality in Wuhan, this study analyzed long-term PM2.5 concentration measurement, near-surface and upper-air meteorological observations from March 2015 to February 2019, in combination with the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2). We found that in winter the day-to-day change of PM2.5 pollution level in Wuhan was governed by the synoptic warm/cold advection, in addition to the high emissions of pollutants. The synoptic condition can largely determine both the vertical development of PBL and horizontal transport of pollutants. When a high-pressure system is located to the north of Wuhan at the 900-hPa level, the induced warm advection above 1,000 m can enhance the thermal stability of lower troposphere and inhibit the development of daytime PBL, leading to a decreased dispersion volume for pollutants. Meanwhile, within the PBL the pollutants emitted from Henan, Shandong, and Anhui provinces can be transported to Wuhan, further worsening the pollution. Our results highlight the importance of coordinated pollution controls in Central China and adjacent north regions under the unfavorable synoptic condition.
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Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province, is one of most populated and heaviest polluted cities in China (
The city is crossed by the transportation routes of road, rail, and river from almost every direction, linking the north, south, west, and east parts of China. This unique geographical location (
In order to comprehensively understand the pollution formation mechanism in Wuhan and elucidate the environmental impact of multi-scale meteorological processes, we collected and analyzed long-term PM2.5 concentration measurement, near-surface and upper-air meteorological observations from March 2015 to February 2019, in combination with the Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications version 2 (MERRA-2).
In this study, hourly PM2.5 concentration data from March 2015 to February 2019 in Wuhan were collected from nine monitoring sites in Wuhan (
To complement these above-mentioned discrete observations to gain further insight into the nature of PM2.5 pollution, we analyzed the MERRA-2 data in this study, which is the latest atmospheric reanalysis of the modern satellite era developed by NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (
Besides, 48-h backward trajectories of air masses were simulated using the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model (HYSPLIT) (
During the study period from March 2015 to February 2019, prominent seasonal variation of PM2.5 concentration in Wuhan can be observed (
The day-to-day variation of PM2.5 concentration in Wuhan is shown in
Time-height sections of potential temperature (PT) in winter from December 2015 to February 2019 in Wuhan, derived from
Boxplot showing the changes of daily PM2.5 concentration (blue) and 850-hPa PT (red) in Wuhan during winter on the days of different quintiles of PM2.5 concentration (Q1 to Q5). The PTs shown were derived from the radiosonde measurements at 08:00 LT, and the measurements of rainy days (24-h accumulated precipitation greater than 0.5 mm) were excluded. The central box represents the values from the lower to upper quartile (25th to 75th percentile). The vertical line extends from the 0th percentile to the 90th percentile value. The middle solid line represents the median, and the dot represents the mean value.
In addition to the thermal structure, significant difference in the wind profiles between the clean and polluted conditions can also be observed (
Because the change of PM2.5 pollution in Wuhan was closely related to the variation of 850-hPa PT, we used the daily 850-hP PT fields derived from MERRA-2 as the T-PCA input data, and eight types of synoptic pattern were objectively classified (
Typical synoptic patterns associated with
In addition to the regional-scale synoptic forcing, the radiative effect of aerosol can also modulate the PBL thermal structure (
The synoptic condition not only modulates the PBL structure, but also determines the transport pathways of pollutants (
To further validate the regional transport from north, we derived the PSCF map for PM2.5 pollution in Wuhan on the basis of HYSPLIT backward trajectories. The trajectories ending on the PM2.5 pollution days were identified as the “polluted” trajectories. In addition to the local emissions, the potential source regions for the heavy PM2.5 pollution in Wuhan included the north part of Anhui, the east part of Henan, and the west part of Shandong (
In short, the synoptic condition governs the wintertime PM2.5 pollution in Wuhan
Our results improve the understanding of PM2.5 pollution formation mechanism in the populated Central China, as well as the environmental impacts of multi-scale meteorological conditions during winter. We find that synoptic warm/cold air advection is critical to the formation of air pollution in Wuhan, because it governs both the vertical development of PBL and horizontal transport of pollutants. When a high-pressure system is located to the north of Wuhan at the 900-hPa level, the elevated warm advection above 1,000 m can enhance the thermal stability in lower troposphere and inhibit the development of daytime PBL in Wuhan. Meanwhile, the pollutants emitted from the adjacent Henan, Shandong, and Anhui provinces can be transported to Wuhan, further worsening the pollution. This study highlights the importance of coordinated pollution controls in Central China and its adjacent north regions under the unfavorable synoptic condition.
Besides, although this study has emphasized the impact of physical processes on the PM2.5 pollution in Wuhan, the chemical processes within the PBL also should not be deemphasized, which merits further experimental, observational, and numerical investigations.
Publicly available datasets were analyzed in this study. This data can be found here: The MERRA-2 datasets analyzed for this study are archived by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States (
Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing: YM and HC; visualization, data curation: XZ; supervision: SL.
This study received financial support from the Beijing Nova Program (Z201100006820138), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42030608, 41875181), and the S&T Development Fund of CAMS (2022KJ001), and the Institute of Heavy Rain of China Meteorological Administration.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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