Numerical Study of the Transport and Convective Mechanisms of Biomass Burning Haze in South-Southeast Asia

Muhammad Yaasiin  Oozeer; Andy  Chan; Maggie Chel-Gee  Ooi; Antonio Maurício  Zarzur; Santo Valentin  Salinas; Boon-Ning  Chew; Kenobi Isima  Morris; Wee-Kang  Choong

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2015.07.0461

Numerical Study of the Transport and Convective Mechanisms of Biomass Burning Haze in South-Southeast Asia

Muhammad Yaasiin Oozeer ¹, Andy Chan¹, Maggie Chel-Gee Ooi¹, Antonio Maurício Zarzur², Santo Valentin Salinas³, Boon-Ning Chew³, Kenobi Isima Morris¹, Wee-Kang Choong¹

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¹Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia
²Associate Laboratory for Computing and Applied Mathematics, National Institute for Space Research, São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil
³Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, National University of Singapore, 119076, Singapore

Received: July 15, 2015
Revised: November 17, 2015
Accepted: January 5, 2016
Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2015.07.0461

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Cite this article:
Oozeer, M.Y., Chan, A., Ooi, M.C.G., Zarzur, A.M., Salinas, S.V., Chew, B.N., Morris, K.I. and Choong, W.K. (2016). Numerical Study of the Transport and Convective Mechanisms of Biomass Burning Haze in South-Southeast Asia. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 16: 2950-2963. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2015.07.0461

HIGHLIGHTS

WRF-Chem was used to simulate the June 2013 South-Southeast Asian haze episode.
The effect of the synoptic weather patterns on plume flow were studied.
Two physical mechanisms for deep convection were identified: orographic lifting and convergence.
PM₁₀ emissions were lifted to at least 200 hPa (approximately 200 hPa).

ABSTRACT

This study aims to identify the vertical transport mechanisms that uplifted the forest fire emissions from Sumatra to the upper troposphere during the June 2013 haze crisis. WRF-Chem is used to simulate the formation and transport of biomass-burning haze during the study period of 18th to 26th June 2013. The South-Southeast Asian synoptic weather patterns and their effects on the transport of biomass-burning emissions from Sumatra to Peninsular Malaysia were studied computationally to explain the phenomenon. Results show that PM₁₀ emissions were lifted to 200 hPa height (approximately 12 km) over the Strait of Malacca on 24th June. The two identified vertical transport mechanisms confirmed a previously conjectured convergence over the Strait of Malacca and orographic lifting over Peninsular Malaysia. These mechanisms were able to uplift the biomass-burning emissions to the upper troposphere and this could have significant long-range transport and global climatic effects.

Keywords: WRF-Chem; Southeast Asia; Biomass burning; Vertical transport mechanism; Deep convectio