scholarly journals A Statistical Framework to Identify the Influence of Large-Scale Weather Events on Regional Air Pollution

2011 ◽  
Vol 50 (12) ◽  
pp. 2376-2393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angadh Singh ◽  
Ahmet Palazoglu
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
Temporal Patterns ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Statistical Framework ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Regional Air Pollution

AbstractRegional air pollution episodes occur as a result of increased emissions and prevalence of conducive meteorological conditions. The frequency of occurrence of such favorable conditions on a regional scale may be influenced by large-scale climatic events like ENSO and the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO). The scarcity of measurements of criteria pollutants, especially ozone and particulate matter (PM), prior to the last 10–15-yr period, limits the scope of observing the influence of climate variability during recent decades on regional pollution levels. The authors propose a novel statistical framework to utilize available measurements and characterize synoptic influences on regional PM pollution in California’s Central Valley during 1998–2008. The identified target conditions are used to develop a classification scheme to scan historical climate datasets dating back to 1948. The procedure identifies exceedance-conducive days during 1950–98, when no PM2.5 measurements were available. Temporal patterns in seasonal frequency of these identified exceedance-conducive days are investigated for temporal patterns driven by ENSO and PDO.

scholarly journals The impact of large-scale circulation on daily fine particulate matter (PM<sub>2.5</sub>) over major populated regions of China in winter

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zixuan Jia ◽  
Ruth Doherty ◽  
Carlos Ordóñez ◽  
Chaofan Li ◽  
Oliver Wild ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Meridional Wind ◽  
River Delta ◽  
Large Scale Circulation ◽  
Siberian High ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. The influence of large-scale circulation on daily PM2.5 variability through its direct effect on key regional meteorological variables is examined over three major populated regions of China: Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH), the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), and the Pearl River Delta (PRD). In BTH, a shallow East Asian trough curbs northerly cold and dry air from the Siberian High, enhancing PM2.5 pollution levels. Weak southerly winds in eastern and southern China, associated with a weakened Siberian High, suppress horizontal dispersion, contributing to air pollution accumulation over YRD. In PRD, weak southerly winds and precipitation deficits over southern China are conducive to high PM2.5 pollution levels. To account for these dominant large-scale circulation – PM2.5 relationships, we propose three new circulation-based indices for predicting different levels of air pollution based on regional PM2.5 concentrations in each region: a 500 hPa geopotential height-based index for BTH, a sea level pressure-based index for YRD and an 850 hPa meridional wind-based index for PRD. These three indices can effectively distinguish clean days from heavily polluted days in these regions, assuming variation is solely due to meteorology. We also find that including the most important regional meteorological variable in each region improves the performance of the circulation-based indices in predicting daily PM2.5 concentrations on the regional scale. These results are beneficial to understanding and forecasting the occurrence of heavily polluted PM2.5 days in BTH, YRD and PRD from a large-scale perspective.

scholarly journals Overview of the Mount Tai Experiment (MTX2006) in central East China in June 2006: studies of significant regional air pollution

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 8265-8283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Kanaya ◽  
H. Akimoto ◽  
Z.-F. Wang ◽  
P. Pochanart ◽  
K. Kawamura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Photochemical Activity ◽  
East China ◽  
Strong Impact ◽  
Source Attribution ◽  
Annual Variations ◽  
Photochemical Aging ◽  
Regional Air Pollution

Abstract. We conducted an intensive field campaign at the summit of Mt. Tai (36.26° N, 117.11° E, 1534 m above sea level), Shandong Province, located at the center of central East China, during the period 28 May to 30 June 2006, to study seasonal maxima of regional air pollution with respect to ozone (O3) and aerosols. The specific objectives, campaign design, and major findings are summarized. High concentrations of O3 and its precursors, and aerosols, were detected and studied in the context of annual variations. Most importantly, we identified that emissions from regional-scale open crop residue burning after the harvesting of winter wheat, together with photochemical aging, strongly increased the concentrations of O3, aerosols, and primary pollutants in this month of year. Studies of in situ photochemical activity, regional source attribution of O3, O3–aerosol interactions, validation of satellite observations of tropospheric NO2, behaviors of volatile organic compounds and organic/inorganic aerosol species, loss rates of black carbon (BC), and instrument inter-comparisons are also summarized. The observed BC levels must have a strong impact on the regional climate.

Diversity of Small Mammals in the Pacific Coastal Desert of Peru and Chile and in the Adjacent Andean Area - Biogeography and Community Structure

1994 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 527 ◽  
Author(s):  
PA Marquet
Keyword(s):  
Community Structure ◽  
Species Diversity ◽  
Small Mammals ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Desert Area ◽  
Evolutionary Processes ◽  
Coastal Desert ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Similarities And Differences

Species diversity patterns of small mammals (sigmodontine rodents) in the Chilean-Peruvian Pacific coastal desert and adjacent Andean area (Puna) were analysed by means of latitudinal and altitudinal transects. The statistical analyses of the patterns show: (1) a wide variation in latitudinal species diversity, with a peak in the region where the Puna reaches its greatest areal extent; (2) the differentiation of at least four groups of distinct faunal elements resulting from the interaction of large-scale biogeographic, geological and evolutionary processes; (3) a positive correlation between species richness and altitude for the altitudinal transects located within the Pacific coastal desert area and Puna; and (4) a highly individualistic pattern of community structure at a regional scale. These results are discussed considering biogeographic, palaeoclimatic and evolutionary processes, such as the establishment of the Pacific coastal desert, and the existence of a major centre of species diversification in the Puna area. Similarities and differences between these community-level patterns and those in North American deserts are discussed.

scholarly journals Effects of AIR pollution on cardiopuLmonary disEaSe in urban and peri-urban reSidents in Beijing: protocol for the AIRLESS study

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (24) ◽  
pp. 15775-15792
Author(s):  
Yiqun Han ◽  
Wu Chen ◽  
Lia Chatzidiakou ◽  
Anika Krause ◽  
Li Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Ambient Air Pollution ◽  
Urban Residents ◽  
Cardiopulmonary Disease ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Large Scale Field

Abstract. Beijing, as a representative megacity in China, is experiencing some of the most severe air pollution episodes in the world, and its fast urbanization has led to substantial urban and peri-urban disparities in both health status and air quality. Uncertainties remain regarding the possible causal links between individual air pollutants and health outcomes, with spatial comparative investigations of these links lacking, particularly in developing megacities. In light of this challenge, Effects of AIR pollution on cardiopuLmonary disEaSe in urban and peri-urban reSidents in Beijing (AIRLESS) was initiated, with the aim of addressing the complex issue of relating multi-pollutant exposure to cardiopulmonary outcomes. This paper presents the novel methodological framework employed in the project, namely (1) the deployment of two panel studies from established cohorts in urban and peri-urban Beijing, with different exposure settings regarding pollution levels and diverse sources; (2) the collection of detailed measurements and biomarkers of participants from a nested case (hypertensive) and control (healthy) study setting; (3) the assessment of indoor and personal exposure to multiple gaseous pollutants and particulate matter at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolution with validated novel sensor technologies; (4) the assessment of ambient air pollution levels in a large-scale field campaign, particularly the chemical composition of particulate matter. Preliminary results showed that there is a large difference between ambient and personal air pollution levels, and the differences varied between seasons and locations. These large differences were reflected on the different health responses between the two panels.

scholarly journals North American Winter Dipole: Observed and Simulated Changes in Circulations

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Tang Chien ◽  
S.-Y. Simon Wang ◽  
Yoshimitsu Chikamoto ◽  
Steve L. Voelker ◽  
Jonathan D. D. Meyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
North American ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Model Simulations ◽  
The North ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Climate Model Simulations ◽  
Northwestern North America

In recent years, a pair of large-scale circulation patterns consisting of an anomalous ridge over northwestern North America and trough over northeastern North America was found to accompany extreme winter weather events such as the 2013–2015 California drought and eastern U.S. cold outbreaks. Referred to as the North American winter dipole (NAWD), previous studies have found both a marked natural variability and a warming-induced amplification trend in the NAWD. In this study, we utilized multiple global reanalysis datasets and existing climate model simulations to examine the variability of the winter planetary wave patterns over North America and to better understand how it is likely to change in the future. We compared between pre- and post-1980 periods to identify changes to the circulation variations based on empirical analysis. It was found that the leading pattern of the winter planetary waves has changed, from the Pacific–North America (PNA) mode to a spatially shifted mode such as NAWD. Further, the potential influence of global warming on NAWD was examined using multiple climate model simulations.

The effect of urban air pollution on mental stress: A nationwide study of university students in China (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weifang Zhang ◽  
Sihui Peng ◽  
Jialu Fu ◽  
Ke Xu ◽  
Huihui Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
University Students ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Mental Stress ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Urban Air Pollution ◽  
National Database ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Environmental Protection Policies ◽  
Regional Air Pollution

BACKGROUND Studies exploring the relationship between air pollution levels and mental stress have rarely been done, and no studies have been done comparing university student mental stress levels based on regional air pollution levels. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between air pollution and mental stress among university students. METHODS Participants were 11,942 students, who were identified through a multistage survey sampling process conducted in 50 universities. Regional air pollution levels were retrieved from a national database, and mental stress was measured using a perceived stress scale. Both unadjusted and adjusted methods were utilized in the data analyses. RESULTS Mental stress prevalence was 36.9% (95% CI: 24.4%–49.5%). The final model indicated that regional air pollution levels were positively associated with students’ mental stress. CONCLUSIONS This study provided new and direct evidence of the health hazards of air pollution. The findings underscore the need to develop and implement stringent environmental protection policies, while simultaneously raising public awareness of environmental protection. CLINICALTRIAL NONE

Atmospheric Scales of Motion and Atmospheric Composition

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. David Whiteman
Keyword(s):  
Pacific Northwest ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Synoptic Scale ◽  
Dust Devils ◽  
Sea Breezes ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Diurnal Wind

Weather phenomena occur over a very broad range of scales of space and time, from the global circulation systems that extend around the earth’s circumference to the small eddies that cause cigarette smoke to swirl and mix with clear air. Each circulation can be described in terms of its approximate horizontal diameter and lifetime. Large-scale weather systems, such as hemispheric wave patterns called Rossby waves, monsoons, high and low pressure centers, and fronts, are called synopticscale weather systems. Temperature, humidity, pressure, and wind measurements collected simultaneously all over the world are used to analyze and forecast the evolution of these systems, which have diameters greater than 200 km (125 mi) and lifetimes of days to months. Mesoscale weather events include diurnal wind systems such as mountain wind systems, like breezes, sea breezes, thunderstorms, and other phenomena with horizontal scales that range from 2 to 200 km (1 to 125 mi) and lifetimes that range from hours to days. Mesoscale meteorologists use networks of surface- based instruments, balloon-borne sounding systems, remote sensing systems (e.g., radar, lidar, and sodar), and aircraft to make observations on these scales. Microscale meteorology focuses on local or small-scale atmospheric phenomena with diameters below 2 km (1 mi) and lifetimes from seconds to hours, including gusts and turbulence, dust devils, thermals, and certain cloud types. Microscale studies are usually confined to the layer of air from the earth’s surface to an altitude where surface effects become negligible (approximately 1000 feet or 300 m at night and 5000 feet or 1500 m during the day). A fourth and less rigorously defined term, the regional scale, denotes circulations and weather events occurring on horizontal scales from 500 to 5000 km (310 to 3100 mi). The regional scale is thus smaller than synoptic scale, but larger than mesoscale. The term is often used to describe events that occur within more or less homogeneous physiographic provinces (e.g., the Pacific Northwest region). Major mountain ranges impact the weather on the synoptic scale. They anchor large-scale pressure systems in the Northern Hemisphere, cause low and high pressure weather systems to form, and produce large-scale seasonal wind systems in Asia and North America.

LARGE-SCALE AIR POLLUTION MODELING IN EUROPE UNDER DIFFERENT CLIMATIC SCENARIOS

2019 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 1950009 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZAHARI ZLATEV ◽  
IVAN DIMOV ◽  
ISTVÁN FARAGÓ ◽  
KRASSIMIR GEORGIEV ◽  
ÁGNES HAVASI
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Chemical Species ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Climatic Changes ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Pollution Modeling ◽  
The Impact

The treatment of large-scale air pollution models is not only important for modern society, but also an extremely difficult task. Five important physical and chemical processes: (1) horizontal advection, (2) horizontal diffusion, (3) vertical exchange, (4) emission of different pollutants and (5) dry and wet deposition have to be united and handled together. This leads to huge computational problems which have to be treated on modern high-speed parallel architectures by using advanced numerical methods. The computational difficulties are vastly increased when such models are used in the investigation of the impact of climatic changes on high pollution levels that are often exceeding certain critical concentrations and, therefore, are becoming harmful for plants, animals and human beings. There are two major reasons for the great increase in computational difficulties: (a) it is necessary to run the discretized data on fine spatial grid models over very long time-periods consisting of many consecutive years and (b) different scenarios are to be used in order to investigate the sensitivity of the pollution levels to systematic variations of several carefully selected key parameters. How the major difficulties can be resolved is explained here. Furthermore, many results are presented in order to demonstrate the ability of the model to handle successfully the huge computational tasks by using fine space and time discretization and by applying a chemical scheme with many chemical species participating in several hundred chemical reactions. Our results indicate that the climatic changes will often lead to some increases in the pollution levels.

Composite Predictor Maps of Extraordinary Weather Events in the Sacramento, California, Region*

2008 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 313-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Grotjahn ◽  
Ghislain Faure
Keyword(s):  
Heat Waves ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Central Valley ◽  
Significance Test ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Thermal Fields ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Composite Maps ◽  
Rain Events

Abstract Extraordinary weather events in the Sacramento, California, region are examined using a simple compositing technique. The extraordinary events identified are uncommon and the worst of their kind, but not necessarily severe. While the criteria outlined herein are drawn from Sacramento weather station data, the identified events are extraordinary elsewhere over much, if not all, of California’s Central Valley. Several types of extraordinary events are highlighted, including the hardest freezes, heaviest prolonged rain events, longest-duration fog, and worst heat waves (onset and end) in a 21-yr period. Bootstrap resampling establishes the statistical significance of features on the composite maps. The composite maps with statistically significant features highlighted allow a forecaster to search for key features in forecast maps that coexist with or that precede an extraordinary weather event. Local- and regional-scale extraordinary events have larger-scale signatures that can be traced back in time. Many of these features are intuitive and known to local forecasters (and that provides a check upon the methodology used here). However, some features appear to be unexpected. For example, a ridge (in height and thermal fields) over the southeastern United States generally occurs prior to the worst heat waves and hardest freezes. Some features appear to exhibit the theoretical concept of downstream development. Several extraordinary weather types are preceded by a ridge either over Alaska (hardest freezes and heaviest prolonged rain) or just west of Alaska (worst heat waves). While the Alaskan ridge passes a significance test, the presence of other features (such as the southeastern ridge) determines what, if any, extraordinary event occurs near Sacramento. However, a feature that passes the significance test for the composite might not occur in every member of a given extraordinary event. The height and thermal patterns over the West Coast and North Pacific are similar for summer’s worst heat waves and winter’s longest-duration fog: both types of events are preceded by a trough in the eastern mid-Pacific.

scholarly journals Particulate Matter and Health Risk under a Changing Climate: Assessment for Portugal

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Dias ◽  
Oxana Tchepel ◽  
Anabela Carvalho ◽  
Ana Isabel Miranda ◽  
Carlos Borrego
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Premature Mortality ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Absolute Number ◽  
Population Exposure ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Pollution Levels ◽  
Climate Assessment ◽  
Induced Changes

The potential impacts of climate-induced changes in air pollution levels and its impacts on population health were investigated. The IPCC scenario (SRES A2) was used to analyse the effects of climate on future PM10 concentrations over Portugal and their impact on short-term population exposure and mortality. The air quality modelling system has been applied with high spatial resolution looking on climate changes at regional scale. To quantify health impacts related to air pollution changes, the WHO methodology for health impact assessment was implemented. The results point to 8% increase of premature mortality attributed to future PM10 levels in Portugal. The pollution episodes with daily average PM10 concentration above the current legislated value (50 μg·m−3) would be responsible for 81% of attributable cases. The absolute number of deaths attributable to PM10 under future climate emphasizes the importance of indirect effects of climate change on human health.

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