Year: 2022
Type: article
Abstract: Given the high population density and serious air pollution problems, understanding and predicting air pollution in East Asia are of great importance. Here, we show that the day-to-day variability of East Asia air pollution in winter is remotely controlled by the convection over the tropical Indian Ocean and western Pacific, the so-called Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO), through its extratropical teleconnections. In particular, the concentration of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 micron (PM10) becomes significantly high when the tropical convection is suppressed over the Indian Ocean (MJO phases 5–6). In contrast, PM10 concentration becomes significantly low when the convection is enhanced there (MJO phase 1–2). The station-averaged PM10 difference between the two MJO phases reaches up to 47% of the daily PM10 variability, indicating that the MJO is a primary source of wintertime subseasonal variability of East Asia PM10 concentration. We also show that PM10 anomaly typically lags the tropical convection by one to two weeks. This opens a new window of opportunity for subseasonal PM10 prediction in East Asia.
Source: Nature Communications
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $5,890
Funders: National Science Foundation, National Research Foundation, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Korea Meteorological Administration, National Research Foundation of Korea, Ministry of Education, India, Korea Institute of Marine Science and Technology promotion, Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea, Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute
OpenAlex ID: W4296836715