Intense atmospheric pollution modifies weather: a~case of mixed biomass burning with fossil fuel combustion pollution in the eastern China
Open Access
- 3 June 2013
- preprint content
- research article
- Published by Copernicus GmbH
- Vol. 13 (20), 10545-10554
- https://doi.org/10.5194/acpd-13-14377-2013
Abstract
The influence of air pollutants, particularly aerosols, on regional and global climate is widely investigated, but only a very limited number of studies reports their impacts on everyday weather. In this work, we present for the first time direct (observational) evidence of a clear effect how a mixed atmospheric pollution changes the weather with a substantial modification in air temperature and rainfall. By using comprehensive measurements in Nanjing, China, we found that mixed agricultural burning plumes with fossil fuel combustion pollution resulted in a decrease of solar radiation by more than 70%, of sensible heat flux over 85%, a temperature drop by almost 10 K, and a change of rainfall during daytime and nighttime. Our results show clear air pollution – weather interactions, and quantify how air pollution affects weather with the influence of air pollution-boundary layer dynamics and aerosol-radiation-cloudy feedbacks. This study highlights a cross-disciplinary needs to study the environmental, weather and climate impact of the mixed biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion sources in the East China.Keywords
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