Mesoscale modeling of smoke transport over the Southeast Asian Maritime Continent: Interplay of sea breeze, trade wind, typhoon, and topography

Jun Wang; Cui Ge; Zhifeng Yang; Edward J Hyer; Jeffrey S Reid; Boon-Ning Chew; Mastura Mahmud; Yongxin Zhang; Meigen Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2012.05.009

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Mesoscale modeling of smoke transport over the Southeast Asian Maritime Continent: Interplay of sea breeze, trade wind, typhoon, and topography

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Mesoscale modeling of smoke transport over the Southeast Asian Maritime Continent: Interplay of sea breeze, trade wind, typhoon, and topography

Jun Wang, Cui Ge, Zhifeng Yang, Edward J Hyer, Jeffrey S Reid, Boon-Ning Chew, Mastura Mahmud, Yongxin Zhang and Meigen Zhang

Atmospheric research, Vol.122, pp.486-503

03/2013

DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2012.05.009

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Abstract

The online-coupled Weather Research and Forecasting model with Chemistry (WRFchem) is used to simulate the transport of smoke particles over the Southeast Asian Maritime Continent during September–October 2006. In this period, dry conditions associated with the moderate El Niño event caused the largest regional biomass burning outbreak since 1997. Smoke emission in WRFchem is specified according to the Fire Locating and Modeling of Burning Emissions (FLAMBE) database derived from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire products. The modeled smoke transport pathway is found to be consistent with the MODIS true color images and measured mass concentration of surface PM10 (particulate matter with diameter less than 10μm). The interplay of sea/land breezes, typhoons and storms over the subtropical western Pacific Ocean, trade winds, and topographic effects, can be clearly seen in the model simulation. The most severe smoke events in 1–5 October 2006 are found to be associated with the meteorological responses to the typhoon Xangsane (#18) over the western subtropical Pacific Ocean, which moved smoke from Sumatra eastward in the lower troposphere (below 700hPa), forming smoke layers mixed with and above the boundary layer clouds over Borneo. In contrast, the second largest week-long smoke transport event of 15–18 October 2006 was associated with the seasonal monsoonal transition period, during which smoke plumes were wide spread over the 5°S–5°N zone as a result of (a) the near surface divergence coupled with the 700hPa bifurcation of wind (flowing both to the west and to the east), and (b) the near-surface southeasterly and easterly winds along the equator transporting smoke from Borneo to Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia. Analysis of data from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarisation (CALIOP) shows that smoke particles in October 2006 were primarily located within 3.5km above the surface. Smoke particles contributed roughly half of the total aerosol extinction retrieved by CALIOP. Results suggest that the smoke injection height in the model should be set lower than the 2–5km commonly used in transport simulations; smoke release at ~0.8km instead of 2km above surface gives a consistently better match to CALIOP observations. Numerical experiments further show that the Titiwangsa Mountains in Malaysia Peninsula and Tama Abu Mountains in Borneo have significant impacts on smoke transport and the surface air quality in the vicinity. ► The transport of smoke particles over the Southeast Asia is studied with WRFchem. ► Identified are roles of sea breeze, storm, monsoon and topography in smoke transport. ► WRFchem-CALIOP comparison suggests an optimal smoke injection height of ~0.8km. ► This injection height is lower than 2–4km often used in chemistry transport models. ► WRFchem simulations using FLAMBE fire emission agree well MODIS and ground-based data.

Southeast Asian Maritime Continent

Smoke particles

Typhoon

Trade wind

Sea breeze

Details

Title: Subtitle: Mesoscale modeling of smoke transport over the Southeast Asian Maritime Continent: Interplay of sea breeze, trade wind, typhoon, and topography
Creators: Jun Wang - Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska — Lincoln, NE, USA
Cui Ge - Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska — Lincoln, NE, USA
Zhifeng Yang - Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nebraska — Lincoln, NE, USA
Edward J Hyer - Marine Meteorology Division, Naval Research Lab, Monterey, CA, USA
Jeffrey S Reid - Marine Meteorology Division, Naval Research Lab, Monterey, CA, USA
Boon-Ning Chew - Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Mastura Mahmud - Earth Observation Centre, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Yongxin Zhang - Research Applications Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, CO, USA
Meigen Zhang - State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Atmospheric research, Vol.122, pp.486-503
Publisher: Elsevier B.V
DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2012.05.009
ISSN: 0169-8095
eISSN: 1873-2895
Grant note: name: NASA New Investigator Program, award: NNX08AQ86G; name: NASA Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program, award: NNX10AG60G; name: NASA Applied Science Program, award: NNX11AJ03G
Language: English
Date published: 03/2013
Academic Unit: Chemical and Biochemical Engineering; Iowa Technology Institute; Physics and Astronomy; Civil and Environmental Engineering
Record Identifier: 9984104808102771

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