FRINK Linked Data Fragments server

Matches in SemOpenAlex for { <https://semopenalex.org/work/W4379054081> ?p ?o ?g. }

• W4379054081 endingPage "759" @default.
• W4379054081 startingPage "751" @default.
• W4379054081 abstract "•High concentration of black carbon (BC) can trigger a tipping point of PBL development•With aerosol load above the tipping point, the maximum PBL height decreases abruptly•The tipping point is caused by BC-induced decoupling of vertical mixing zones•Reducing BC is much more efficient to avoid the tipping point than reducing other aerosols Air pollution is a major threat to human health. Severe haze is often caused by an unexpected extremely shallow planetary boundary layer (PBL), the lowest part of the atmosphere where most pollutants are concentrated. Insufficient understanding of the formation mechanism of a shallow PBL leads to failure of air quality forecast and effective prevention. We found that high atmospheric concentrations of black-carbon (BC) particles (an aerosol) can trigger a “tipping point” in PBL height. Above this tipping point, high concentrations of these particles suppress vertical mixing of atmospheric layers and create a stable PBL, trapping pollutants near the ground and greatly deteriorating air quality. This scenario can be avoided through targeted reductions of BC emissions (rather than targeting total particulate matter reductions). Results further show that mega-wildfires through climate change and nuclear disasters can result in enormous BC emissions and cause extreme stratification of the atmosphere and persistent aerosol layers. Black-carbon (BC) aerosol can strongly influence planetary boundary layer (PBL) development and thus severe haze formation, but its distinct role compared with scattering aerosols is not yet fully understood. Here, combining numerical simulation and field observation, we found a “tipping point,” where the daily maximum PBL height decreases abruptly when exceeding a critical threshold of aerosol optical depth (AOD), due to a BC-induced decoupling of mixing zones. Because the threshold AOD decreases with increasing BC mass fraction, our results suggest that the abrupt transition of PBL development to adverse conditions can be avoided by reducing the AOD below the threshold but can be avoided more efficiently by reducing the BC mass fraction to increase the threshold (e.g., up to four to six times more effective in extreme haze events in Beijing). To achieve co-benefits for air quality and climate change, our findings clearly demonstrate that high priority should be given to controlling BC emissions. Black-carbon (BC) aerosol can strongly influence planetary boundary layer (PBL) development and thus severe haze formation, but its distinct role compared with scattering aerosols is not yet fully understood. Here, combining numerical simulation and field observation, we found a “tipping point,” where the daily maximum PBL height decreases abruptly when exceeding a critical threshold of aerosol optical depth (AOD), due to a BC-induced decoupling of mixing zones. Because the threshold AOD decreases with increasing BC mass fraction, our results suggest that the abrupt transition of PBL development to adverse conditions can be avoided by reducing the AOD below the threshold but can be avoided more efficiently by reducing the BC mass fraction to increase the threshold (e.g., up to four to six times more effective in extreme haze events in Beijing). To achieve co-benefits for air quality and climate change, our findings clearly demonstrate that high priority should be given to controlling BC emissions. In recent decades, heavy winter haze events have frequently occurred in Chinese megacity regions, threatening the health of millions.1Lelieveld J. Evans J.S. Fnais M. Giannadaki D. Pozzer A. The contribution of outdoor air pollution sources to premature mortality on a global scale.Nature. 2015; 525: 367-371https://doi.org/10.1038/nature15371Crossref PubMed Scopus (3449) Google Scholar,2Zheng G.J. Duan F.K. Su H. Ma Y.L. Cheng Y. Zheng B. Zhang Q. Huang T. Kimoto T. Chang D. et al.Exploring the severe winter haze in Beijing: the impact of synoptic weather, regional transport and heterogeneous reactions.Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2015; 15: 2969-2983https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2969-2015Crossref Scopus (740) Google Scholar,3Cheng Y. Zheng G. Wei C. Mu Q. Zheng B. Wang Z. Gao M. Zhang Q. He K. Carmichael G. et al.Reactive nitrogen chemistry in aerosol water as a source of sulfate during haze events in China.Sci. Adv. 2016; 2e1601530https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601530Crossref Scopus (789) Google Scholar,4Wang G. Zhang R. Gomez M.E. Yang L. Levy Zamora M. Hu M. Lin Y. Peng J. Guo S. Meng J. et al.Persistent sulfate formation from London Fog to Chinese haze.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2016; 113: 13630-13635https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1616540113Crossref PubMed Scopus (974) Google Scholar Light-absorbing aerosols, such as black carbon (BC), can change the radiation budget, leading to a cooling of the Earth’s surface and the near-surface atmosphere and a warming of the overlying polluted atmosphere.5Ramanathan V. Crutzen P.J. Kiehl J.T. Rosenfeld D. Aerosols, climate, and the hydrological cycle.Science. 2001; 294: 2119-2124https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1064034Crossref PubMed Scopus (2958) Google Scholar,6Wilcox E.M. Thomas R.M. Praveen P.S. Pistone K. Bender F.A.-M. Ramanathan V. Black carbon solar absorption suppresses turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2016; 113: 11794-11799https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1525746113Crossref PubMed Scopus (88) Google Scholar,7Podgorny I.A. Conant W. Ramanathan V. Satheesh S.K. Aerosol modulation of atmospheric and surface solar heating over the tropical Indian Ocean.Tellus B. 2000; 52: 947-958https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0889.2000.d01-4.xCrossref Scopus (126) Google Scholar,8Crutzen P.J. Birks J.W. The atmosphere after a nuclear war: twilight at noon.Ambio. 1982; 11: 114-125Google Scholar BC also affects the climate by modulating snow albedo9Rahimi S. Liu X. Wu C. Lau W.K. Brown H. Wu M. Qian Y. Quantifying snow darkening and atmospheric radiative effects of black carbon and dust on the South Asian monsoon and hydrological cycle: experiments using variable-resolution CESM.Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2019; 19: 12025-12049https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12025-2019Crossref Scopus (26) Google Scholar,10Wei L. Lu Z. Wang Y. Liu X. Wang W. Wu C. Zhao X. Rahimi S. Xia W. Jiang Y. Black carbon-climate interactions regulate dust burdens over India revealed during COVID-19.Nat. Commun. 2022; 13: 1839https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29468-1Crossref PubMed Scopus (8) Google Scholar and large-scale circulations.11Lau K.M. Kim M.K. Kim K.M. Asian summer monsoon anomalies induced by aerosol direct forcing: the role of the Tibetan Plateau.Clim. Dyn. 2006; 26: 855-864https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-006-0114-zCrossref Scopus (830) Google Scholar,12Yang Y. Smith S.J. Wang H. Lou S. Rasch P.J. Impact of anthropogenic emission injection height uncertainty on global sulfur dioxide and aerosol distribution.J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 2019; 124: 4812-4826https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JD030001Crossref Scopus (10) Google Scholar Although BC has been widely recognized as an important agent in the global radiative budget and forcing,13Jacobson M.Z. Strong radiative heating due to the mixing state of black carbon in atmospheric aerosols.Nature. 2001; 409: 695-697https://doi.org/10.1038/35055518Crossref PubMed Scopus (1942) Google Scholar,14Andreae M.O. The dark side of aerosols.Nature. 2001; 409: 671-672https://doi.org/10.1038/35055640Crossref PubMed Scopus (137) Google Scholar,15Bond T.C. Doherty S.J. Fahey D.W. Forster P.M. Berntsen T. DeAngelo B.J. Flanner M.G. Ghan S. Kärcher B. Koch D. et al.Bounding the role of black carbon in the climate system: a scientific assessment.J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 2013; 118: 5380-5552https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50171Crossref Scopus (3943) Google Scholar,16Ackerman T.P. A model of the effect of aerosols on urban climates with particular applications to the Los Angeles Basin.J. Atmos. Sci. 1977; 34: 531-547https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469Crossref Google Scholar its heating effect on the development of the atmospheric boundary layer is still not fully understood. The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the lowest part of the troposphere that is directly influenced by the Earth’s surface. The most common definition of PBL height is the height up to which the influence of the presence of the lower surface is detectable.17Lenschow D.H. Probing the Atmospheric Boundary Layer. Amer Meteorological Society, 1986Crossref Google Scholar During daytime, the PBL is often a convective PBL, where the PBL height is largely driven by convections and is closely linked to the convective and turbulent diffusion of air pollutants. Several studies suggest that BC-induced heating will alter the turbulence strength, increase vertical thermal stability, suppress the PBL development, and thus aggravate air pollution.5Ramanathan V. Crutzen P.J. Kiehl J.T. Rosenfeld D. Aerosols, climate, and the hydrological cycle.Science. 2001; 294: 2119-2124https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1064034Crossref PubMed Scopus (2958) Google Scholar,18Wendisch M. Hellmuth O. Ansmann A. Heintzenberg J. Engelmann R. Althausen D. Eichler H. Müller D. Hu M. Zhang Y. et al.Radiative and dynamic effects of absorbing aerosol particles over the Pearl River Delta, China.Atmos. Environ. 2008; 42: 6405-6416https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2008.02.033Crossref Scopus (55) Google Scholar,19Ding A.J. Huang X. Nie W. Sun J.N. Kerminen V.-M. Petäjä T. Su H. Cheng Y.F. Yang X.-Q. Wang M.H. et al.Enhanced haze pollution by black carbon in megacities in China.Geophys. Res. Lett. 2016; 43: 2873-2879https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL067745Crossref Scopus (519) Google Scholar,20Huang X. Wang Z. Ding A. Impact of aerosol-PBL interaction on haze pollution: multiyear observational evidences in North China.Geophys. Res. Lett. 2018; 45: 8596-8603https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079239Crossref Scopus (154) Google Scholar,21Dickerson R.R. Kondragunta S. Stenchikov G. Civerolo K.L. Doddridge B.G. Holben B.N. The Impact of aerosols on solar ultraviolet radiation and photochemical smog.Science. 1997; 278: 827-830https://doi.org/10.1126/science.278.5339.827Crossref PubMed Scopus (479) Google Scholar,22Xing J. Wang J. Mathur R. Pleim J. Wang S. Hogrefe C. Gan C.-M. Wong D.C. Hao J. Unexpected benefits of reducing aerosol cooling effects.Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016; 50: 7527-7534https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b00767Crossref PubMed Scopus (26) Google Scholar,23Wong D.C. Pleim J. Mathur R. Binkowski F. Otte T. Gilliam R. Pouliot G. Xiu A. Young J.O. Kang D. WRF-CMAQ two-way coupled system with aerosol feedback: software development and preliminary results.Geosci. Model Dev. (GMD). 2012; 5: 299-312https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-299-2012Crossref Scopus (163) Google Scholar,24Liu C. Huang J. Fedorovich E. Hu X.-M. Wang Y. Lee X. Impact of aerosol shortwave radiative heating on the entrainment in atmospheric convective boundary layer: a large-eddy simulation study.J. Atmos. Sci. 2018; 9: 347-799https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9090347Crossref Google Scholar,25Liu C. Huang J. Fedorovich E. Hu X.-M. Wang Y. Lee X. The effect of aerosol radiative heating on turbulence statistics and spectra in the atmospheric convective boundary layer: a large-eddy simulation study.Atmosphere. 2018; 9: 347https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9090347Crossref Scopus (8) Google Scholar On the other hand, BC-induced heating can also lift the top of the PBL, compensating the effects of reduced buoyancy underneath.26Yu H. Liu S. Dickinson R.E. Radiative effects of aerosols on the evolution of the atmospheric boundary layer.J. Geophys. Res-Atmos. 2002; 107: AAC 3-1-AAC 3-14https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD000754Crossref Google Scholar,27Rudich Y. Sagi A. Rosenfeld D. Influence of the Kuwait oil fires plume (1991) on the microphysical development of clouds.J. Geophys. Res. 2003; 1084478https://doi.org/10.1029/2003jd003472Crossref PubMed Scopus (35) Google Scholar,28Barbaro E. Vilà-Guerau de Arellano J. Krol M.C. Holtslag A.A.M. Impacts of aerosol shortwave radiation absorption on the dynamics of an idealized convective atmospheric boundary layer.Bound-Lay. Meteorol. 2013; 148: 31-49https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-013-9800-7Crossref Scopus (46) Google Scholar,29Li Z. Guo J. Ding A. Liao H. Liu J. Sun Y. Wang T. Xue H. Zhang H. Zhu B. Aerosol and boundary-layer interactions and impact on air quality.Natl. Sci. Rev. 2017; 4: 810-833https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwx117Crossref Scopus (453) Google Scholar,30Jacobson M.Z. Studying the effects of aerosols on vertical photolysis rate coefficient and temperature profiles over an urban airshed.J. Geophys. Res. 1998; 103: 10593-10604https://doi.org/10.1029/98jd00287Crossref Scopus (176) Google Scholar Moreover, light absorption and heating by BC aerosols within the PBL may also lead to an increase of vertical mixing rather than strengthened stratification.31Tie X. Huang R.-J. Cao J. Zhang Q. Cheng Y. Su H. Chang D. Pöschl U. Hoffmann T. Dusek U. et al.Severe pollution in China amplified by atmospheric moisture.Sci. Rep. 2017; 715760https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15909-1Crossref Scopus (152) Google Scholar BC also affects cloud distribution via aerosol-cloud interactions and aerosol-radiation interactions,32Twomey S. The influence of pollution on the shortwave albedo of clouds.J. Atmos. Sci. 1977; 34: 1149-1152https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1977)034<1149:tiopot>2.0.co;2Crossref Google Scholar,33Ding K. Huang X. Ding A. Wang M. Su H. Kerminen V.-M. Petäjä T. Tan Z. Wang Z. Zhou D. et al.Aerosol-boundary-layer-monsoon interactions amplify semi-direct effect of biomass smoke on low cloud formation in Southeast Asia.Nat. Commun. 2021; 12: 6416https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26728-4Crossref PubMed Scopus (23) Google Scholar which may further influence the energy balance and dynamic in the PBL as well as meteorology and aerosols below the cloud. Here, we revisit this topic by comprehensive investigations of aerosol-PBL interactions through single-column model simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and the online coupled WRF and chemistry model (WRF-Chem), where a wide range of scenarios with different meteorological conditions and aerosol properties (concentration, single-scattering albedo [SSA], and vertical distribution) have been studied (Figure S1). We find a BC-induced sharp regime transition of aerosol-PBL interactions that explains the formation of a shallow PBL and amplifies the severe winter haze events in polluted megacity regions in northern China. Figure 1A shows the response of PBL structure to a change of aerosol optical depth (AOD) under stagnant weather conditions and with SSA = 0.85, characteristic for winter haze events in Beijing and the North China Plain (see Figure S1). We find a tipping point of the daily maximum PBL height (Hmax) (black line in Figure 1A) response to increasing AOD when aerosol loads exceed a certain threshold (AOD ∼ 1.2), suggesting a transition in the aerosol-PBL interaction regimes. According to long-term statistics,34Xie Y. Wang Y. Zhang K. Dong W. Lv B. Bai Y. Daily estimation of ground-level PM2.5 concentrations over beijing using 3 km resolution MODIS AOD.Environ. Sci. Technol. 2015; 49: 12280-12288https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b01413Crossref PubMed Scopus (249) Google Scholar,35Zheng C. Zhao C. Zhu Y. Wang Y. Shi X. Wu X. Chen T. Wu F. Qiu Y. Analysis of influential factors for the relationship between PM2.5 and AOD in Beijing.Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2017; 17: 13473-13489https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13473-2017Crossref Scopus (136) Google Scholar AOD of ∼1.2 in this area corresponds, on average, to a surface fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration of ∼100–200 μg m−3 in winter.34Xie Y. Wang Y. Zhang K. Dong W. Lv B. Bai Y. Daily estimation of ground-level PM2.5 concentrations over beijing using 3 km resolution MODIS AOD.Environ. Sci. Technol. 2015; 49: 12280-12288https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b01413Crossref PubMed Scopus (249) Google Scholar The threshold AOD (blue dashed line in Figure 1A) marks two distinct regimes of aerosol-PBL interaction. In the low-AOD regime (AOD ≤ 1.2), increasing AOD has almost no effect on Hmax. When crossing the threshold, an AOD change of 0.1 unit leads to a drop of Hmax from ∼600 to ∼200 m, showing an extremely strong effect on the PBL. Such a regime transition is also evident from a similar prompt change of heat exchange coefficients (Kh, colored contour in Figure 1A), which reflect the intensity of turbulent mixing, a key parameter controlling the dispersion of air pollutants. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such a regime transition and collapse of PBL has been revealed. As shown in Figures 1A and 1B, this tipping point of the PBL development is a unique feature in the presence of light-absorbing BC aerosols. Increasing AOD of non-absorbing aerosols (i.e., SSA = 1.0, purely light scattering) only leads to a continuous moderate reduction of Hmax and Kh (Figures 1B and S2). The importance of BC is also evident from its strong impact on the threshold AOD. As shown in Figure 1C, increasing SSA (i.e., decreasing BC mass fraction) from 0.8 to 0.95 will increase the threshold AOD by a factor of ∼2, strongly reducing the probability of the aerosol-induced abrupt decrease of PBL height. Further sensitivity studies with both WRF and WRF-Chem models show that, in the presence of light-absorbing BC aerosols, the existence of a threshold is not limited to specific meteorological conditions, vertical aerosol distributions, or boundary layer model scheme but can be found over other weather conditions, locations, and seasons (Figures S3A–S3C, S3H, S3I, S4, and S5), suggesting a commonly existing mechanism. Although the threshold value can be different, a tipping point is always observed. According to these results, weaker solar radiation will lead to a lower threshold AOD and a higher tendency of the abrupt decrease of PBL height (Figures S3B, S3D, and S3E), which means that this mechanism may play an important role in the severe haze formation in wintertime in northern China. Figure 2A shows the observed response of daytime PBL development on aerosol loading in winter Beijing, based on micropulse lidar (MPL) measurements in December, January, and February from December 2016 to February 2018 (see section “experimental procedures”). For comparison, we also performed WRF column model simulations for the same period (see section “experimental procedures” and supplemental information). In accordance with the model simulations (Figures 2B and 2C), the observations exhibit a similar threshold AOD (∼0.5–0.75) and two distinct regimes of aerosol-PBL interaction. On average, for the winter period, the modeled PBL height in Beijing decreases by around 50% when AOD exceeds the threshold (Figure 2C), which is consistent with the observation (Figure 2A). These results further support the proposed mechanism (i.e., BC-induced regime transition of boundary layer development). The BC-induced abrupt change of the PBL height is in contrast to the conventional understanding of aerosol-PBL interactions, where a gradual increase of aerosol loading is expected to cause a continuous reduction of surface net solar radiation (Rn) and surface sensible heat flux (Fh), and thus a continuous reduction of the PBL height. As shown in Figure S8, Rn and Fh do show a gradual change against AOD in the presence of BC. Then, the question is why does the PBL respond differently crossing a certain threshold AOD? To answer this question and understand the underlying mechanism, we investigated the diurnal evolution of the PBL and the mixing structure below, around, and above the threshold AOD (Figures 3 and S9). As indicated by Kh, the presence of absorbing aerosols leads to the development of two mixing zones: one near the ground driven by surface heating, and another one at higher altitude driven by heating of absorbing BC aerosols. At a given SSA, increasing aerosol loading has distinct effects on the two mixing zones. On one hand, it suppresses the development of the lower zone by reducing the surface heat flux through dimming effect29Li Z. Guo J. Ding A. Liao H. Liu J. Sun Y. Wang T. Xue H. Zhang H. Zhu B. Aerosol and boundary-layer interactions and impact on air quality.Natl. Sci. Rev. 2017; 4: 810-833https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwx117Crossref Scopus (453) Google Scholar and reduction of temperature gradient between the surface and atmosphere. On the other hand, it promotes the development of the upper zone by providing additional buoyancy and inducing convection above the aerosol layers through increasing light absorption at higher altitude (Figure S10A). A similar invigoration effect of layered BC has been investigated for aviation and biomass-burning smoke plumes.36Radke L.F. Lyons J.H. Hobbs P.V. Weiss R.E. Smokes from the burning of aviation fuel and their self-lofting by solar heating.J. Geophys. Res. 1990; 95: 14071-14076https://doi.org/10.1029/JD095iD09p14071Crossref Google Scholar,37Boers R. de Laat A.T. Stein Zweers D.C. Dirksen R.J. Lifting potential of solar-heated aerosol layers.Geophys. Res. Lett. 2010; 37https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL045171Crossref Scopus (23) Google Scholar,38de Laat A.T.J. Stein Zweers D.C. Boers R. Tuinder O.N.E. A solar escalator: observational evidence of the self-lifting of smoke and aerosols by absorption of solar radiation in the February 2009 Australian Black Saturday plume.J. Geophys. Res. 2012; 117https://doi.org/10.1029/2011jd017016Crossref Google Scholar,39Lelieveld J. Klingmüller K. Pozzer A. Burnett R.T. Haines A. Ramanathan V. Effects of fossil fuel and total anthropogenic emission removal on public health and climate.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2019; 116: 7192-7197https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1819989116Crossref PubMed Scopus (336) Google Scholar At an AOD below the threshold (Figures 3A and 3B), the two mixing zones are coupled to each other in the course of boundary layer development, reaching a maximum PBL height (Hmax) of ∼600 m around noontime. In this regime (AOD ≤ 1.2), despite of the upper-level heating (actually a gradient in the aerosol heating; Figure S10A) and surface dimming (Figure S8A), the uniform potential temperature θ around 15:00 is a clear proof that the strong mixing effect is able to eliminate the daytime gradient and dilute air pollutants emitted at the surface by upward transport (black dashed line and two blue lines in Figure 2E). As long as the two zones are coupled, the increased mixing in the upper zone and inter-zonal transport compensates for the reduced mixing in the lower zone, leading to an insensitive response of Hmax and mean Kh to the increase of AOD (Figures 1A, S2, S3F, and S3G). As shown in Figures 1A and 1B, compared with scattering aerosols (SSA = 1.0), the absorbing aerosol have a much weaker effect in terms of “suppressing” the boundary layer development in this regime, and, when the BC mass fraction further increases (e.g., SSA = 0.8), it may even slightly enhance the boundary layer development prior to the tipping point (Figures S2 and S4). At an AOD above the threshold (Figures 3C and 3D), the development of the lower mixing zone is suppressed so strongly that it cannot connect to the upper one. Such decoupling leads to a sharp drop of Hmax (Figure 1A) and a regime transition of aerosol-PBL interactions. Under this condition, θ shows a large inter-zonal difference, which forms a noontime inversion above the surface zone and suppresses further development of the PBL in the afternoon (orange and red line in Figures 3E and S11). After decoupling, BC aerosols lead to much lower PBL height than scattering aerosol for the same AOD. As shown in Figures 1A and 1B, for an AOD of 1.5, scattering aerosols lead to a PBL height of ∼530 m, while the presence of BC aerosols results in a much shallower PBL of ∼190 m. The stronger suppression effect by BC-containing aerosols can be explained by two reasons: (1) first, the light absorption effect is more efficient than the light scattering effect in reducing surface incoming solar radiation, the energy source of surface heating. The absorbed solar radiation is fully lost and cannot reach the surface anymore, while only part of the scattered solar radiation is reflected back to the space and the rest will reach the surface. As shown in Figure S8A, given the same AOD or aerosol extinction (the sum of scattering and absorption), BC aerosols lead to much less incoming surface solar radiation than scattering aerosols. (2) BC-induced heating of atmosphere further reduces the surface heat flux. The heat flux from surface heats the bottom air, resulting in convections and driving the development of PBL. When BC heats the air, it reduces the temperature difference between surface and the atmosphere. So, even for the same incoming solar radiation, the heat flux in the presence of BC is still smaller than that for scattering aerosols (Figure S8B), which further suppresses the development of the lower mixing zone. In this decoupled regime (AOD > 1.2), air pollutants are trapped within the lower mixing zone, and BC aerosols start to suppress the development of the PBL much more efficiently than scattering aerosols. As shown in Figures 1A and 1B, a ∼100-m decrease of Hmax requires only a 0.5-unit change of AOD in the presence of elevated BC mass fractions (SSA = 0.85), compared with a ∼1.7-unit change for purely scattering aerosols (SSA = 1.0). The stronger effect of BC aerosols in this regime can be attributed to three factors: a smaller forward scattering to extinction ratio, resulting in less solar radiation reaching the ground under the same AOD (Figure S5); additional heating of the atmosphere, reducing the air-surface temperature gradient and heat fluxes (Figure S9B); and a strengthened inversion induced by BC in the residual layer in the morning, retarding the full development of the PBL (Figure S11). Our finding reconciles the contrasting results in early studies, where the coupled regime (Figure 3A) corresponds to a weak suppression or even slight invigoration effect of BC on the PBL,5Ramanathan V. Crutzen P.J. Kiehl J.T. Rosenfeld D. Aerosols, climate, and the hydrological cycle.Science. 2001; 294: 2119-2124https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1064034Crossref PubMed Scopus (2958) Google Scholar,22Xing J. Wang J. Mathur R. Pleim J. Wang S. Hogrefe C. Gan C.-M. Wong D.C. Hao J. Unexpected benefits of reducing aerosol cooling effects.Environ. Sci. Technol. 2016; 50: 7527-7534https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b00767Crossref PubMed Scopus (26) Google Scholar,23Wong D.C. Pleim J. Mathur R. Binkowski F. Otte T. Gilliam R. Pouliot G. Xiu A. Young J.O. Kang D. WRF-CMAQ two-way coupled system with aerosol feedback: software development and preliminary results.Geosci. Model Dev. (GMD). 2012; 5: 299-312https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-299-2012Crossref Scopus (163) Google Scholar,24Liu C. Huang J. Fedorovich E. Hu X.-M. Wang Y. Lee X. Impact of aerosol shortwave radiative heating on the entrainment in atmospheric convective boundary layer: a large-eddy simulation study.J. Atmos. Sci. 2018; 9: 347-799https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9090347Crossref Google Scholar,25Liu C. Huang J. Fedorovich E. Hu X.-M. Wang Y. Lee X. The effect of aerosol radiative heating on turbulence statistics and spectra in the atmospheric convective boundary layer: a large-eddy simulation study.Atmosphere. 2018; 9: 347https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9090347Crossref Scopus (8) Google Scholar whereas a strong suppression effect6Wilcox E.M. Thomas R.M. Praveen P.S. Pistone K. Bender F.A.-M. Ramanathan V. Black carbon solar absorption suppresses turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2016; 113: 11794-11799https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1525746113Crossref PubMed Scopus (88) Google Scholar,14Andreae M.O. The dark side of aerosols.Nature. 2001; 409: 671-672https://doi.org/10.1038/35055640Crossref PubMed Scopus (137) Google Scholar,15Bond T.C. Doherty S.J. Fahey D.W. Forster P.M. Berntsen T. DeAngelo B.J. Flanner M.G. Ghan S. Kärcher B. Koch D. et al.Bounding the role of black carbon in the climate system: a scientific assessment.J. Geophys. Res. Atmos. 2013; 118: 5380-5552https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50171Crossref Scopus (3943) Google Scholar,16Ackerman T.P. A model of the effect of aerosols on urban climates with particular applications to the Los Angeles Basin.J. Atmos. Sci. 1977; 34: 531-547https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469Crossref Google Scholar,40Liu D. Zhao D. Xie Z. Yu C. Chen Y. Tian P. Ding S. Hu K. Lowe D. Liu Q. et al.Enhanced heating rate of black carbon above the planetary boundary layer over megacities in summertime.Environ. Res. Lett. 2019; 14124003https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab4872Crossref Scopus (17) Google Scholar,41Liu D. Hu K. Zhao D. Ding S. Wu Y. Zhou C. Yu C. Tian P. Liu Q. Bi K. et al.Efficient vertical transport of black carbon in the planetary boundary layer.Geophys. Res. Lett. 2020; 47e2020GL088858https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GL088858Crossref Scopus (20) Google Scholar can be expected in the decoupled regime (Figure 4B). Our results show that aerosol-induced upper-air heating and surface dimming does not necessarily lead to an inversion or strengthened stratification, as in the coupled regime. However, once the two mixing zones are decoupled, the PBL development will be strongly suppressed, and an inversion will form. Under stagnant weather conditions, the strong suppression of PBL development may lead to such an unfavorable dispersion condition during daytime, which resembles the stable boundary layer condition at nighttime (Figure 1A). This mechanism may help to explain the observed nonlinear dependence of PBL height on AOD in Beijing (i.e., an abrupt change of PBL height at certain AOD levels; Figure 2A). By reanalyzing the data of Ding et al.,19Ding A.J. Huang X. Nie W. Sun J.N. Kerminen V.-M." @default.
• W4379054081 created "2023-06-02" @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5007072085 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5031437341 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5035606234 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5037950211 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5046259530 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5051170784 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5057359066 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5067200755 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5076472527 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5077513211 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5080460120 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5082416286 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5087914116 @default.
• W4379054081 creator A5089839220 @default.
• W4379054081 date "2023-06-01" @default.
• W4379054081 modified "2023-09-29" @default.
• W4379054081 title "Black-carbon-induced regime transition of boundary layer development strongly amplifies severe haze" @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1173523477 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1486156718 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1509885215 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1560749659 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1819362720 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1907369419 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1979008069 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1980038151 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1982091605 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W1993906131 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2007548842 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2028979275 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2028999185 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2038742869 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2040928459 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2041127106 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2044258586 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2047114161 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2051833014 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2058252484 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2064097566 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2067318157 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2080226790 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2084676053 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2094440342 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2095483795 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2100560964 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2109254960 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2109573121 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2110179017 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2116468939 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2119744638 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2121690346 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2127424946 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2141970008 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2153226382 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2170840134 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2173852084 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2178483954 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2428173478 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2465847861 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2528679809 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2554285426 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2564015495 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2587800593 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2598575201 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2758564043 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2769592218 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2785046855 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2885577621 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2891173355 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2923193680 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2931873068 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2976842965 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W3013311113 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W3040777166 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W3208443609 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W3216425582 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W4224252559 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W4225971961 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W4253244148 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W4318960506 @default.
• W4379054081 cites W2938884729 @default.
• W4379054081 doi "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.05.010" @default.
• W4379054081 hasPublicationYear "2023" @default.
• W4379054081 type Work @default.
• W4379054081 citedByCount "0" @default.
• W4379054081 crossrefType "journal-article" @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5007072085 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5031437341 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5035606234 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5037950211 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5046259530 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5051170784 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5057359066 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5067200755 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5076472527 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5077513211 @default.
• W4379054081 hasAuthorship W4379054081A5080460120 @default.

• next