A Case Study of Long-Range Transport of Smoke Aerosols from Eastern Siberia to Northeast China in July 2014

ABSTRACT

Long-range transport of biomass burning aerosols from Eastern Siberia to Northeast China in July 2014 was studied by using ground-based ambient measurements and satellite products. Intensive active fires were revealed in Eastern Siberia during the late of July by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectraradiometer (MODIS) active fire products. Under the favorable synoptic pattern, the smoke layer was transported to Northeast China, which led to significant enhancement of surface PM_2.5 concentration. The peak PM_2.5 concentration exceeded 100 μg m^–3 that was 3–6 times larger than the background level. High aerosol optical depth at 550 nm with daily value exceeding 1.0 was observed at a background site in Northeast China. Smoke aerosols were characterized by fine-mode dominated particles with very weak absorption. Air quality in Northeast China was revealed to be potentially impacted by the long-range transport of smoke aerosols from Eastern Siberia during the biomass burning season, which probably impacted human health, weather and climate. Therefore, futher study on this issue is urgenly required for quantitatively evaluating potential contribution of long-range transport to regional air pollution in Northeast China.