NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

We present in this chapter a study on connections between the wintertime East Asian air pollution phenomenon and the monsoon strength. East Asia has been experiencing a fast worsening of air quality in recent years, particularly in winter, a problem commonly attributed to the increase of pollutant emissions associated with the rapid economic development. Meanwhile, previous studies have shown that the decadal-scale weakening of the Asian monsoon also contributed to the increase of PM2.5 (particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 μm), a major pollutant that determines the air quality. Using a global modeling system, we investigate the emission and meteorological effects on the wintertime surface PM2.5 concentrations in East Asia in the past 30 years and find their relationship to the monsoon strength. We also examine the feedbacks between aerosols and meteorological fields via aerosol-radiation interaction to estimate the effects of such interaction on air quality. M. Chin (*) NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, USA e-mail: mian.chin@nasa.gov H. Bian NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, USA University of Maryland Baltimore County, 100 Hilltop Cir., Baltimore, MD 21250, USA e-mail: huisheng.bian@nasa.gov T. Kucsera • Z. Tao • D. Kim NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, USA Universities Space Research Association, 7178 Columbia Gateway Dr., Columbia, MD 21046, USA e-mail: tom.l.kucsera@nasa.gov; zhining.tao@nasa.gov; dongchul.kim@nasa.gov T. Diehl Joint Research Center, Via Enrico Fermi 2749, I - 21027 Ispra, VA, Italy e-mail: thomas.diehl@jrc.ec.europa.eu X. Pan NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Rd, Greenbelt, MD, USA University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD 20742, USA e-mail: xiaohua.pan@nasa.gov