Tropospheric Long-Range Transport Climate and Implications for Global Air Quality

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This project addresses the long-range transport of pollutants in the atmosphere. Pollution events at any given locations depend on the transport of pollutants into the area and the local concentrations, reactions and sources. Here, the role of transport in determining pollutant concentrations will be isolated using several years of atmospheric reanalysis data. The partitioning of any given air parcel according to location of last surface contact and transit-time interval from that location, the so-called boundary propagator, will be the diagnostic quantity on which this is based. The transport climate will comprise the statistical properties of daily and multi-day averages as well as the variability about the seasonal means, and the probability of extremes. The PI will objectively evaluate the physical conditions and mechanisms conducive to long-range transport. It is envisaged that the boundary propagator will show key advantages over trajectory analyses that are currently used in the interpretation of observational data and chemical transport model simulations. Knowledge of the transport characteristics of pollutants will have strong benefits for abatement strategies and environmental policy making.