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Deteriorating haze situation and the severe haze episode during December 18–25 of 2013 in Xi’an, China, the worst event on record

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Abstract

Frequent occurrence of haze weather has been considered an urgent environmental problem in China and has attracted much attention worldwide in recent years. In this study, we examined the trend in the occurrence of haze days based on horizontal visibility in Xi’an, a major city in central China, since 2000. There were 49 haze days per year on average in Xi’an during 2000–2013, and the number of haze days has increased significantly since 2008, reaching 102 days in 2013. December is the month of the highest frequency of occurrence. During December 18–25 of 2013, the longest-lasting and most severe haze event in the recent decades occurred. The 8-day mean visibility in Xi’an was only 2.5 km with 5 days below 2 km. The mean air quality index in Xi’an during this period was 486.5, and in four of those days, it reached or exceeded the index’s upper limit of 500. The exceptionally high level of PM2.5 concentration was inferred as the main reason of this severe haze episode. The local weather conditions were characterized by weak winds, enhanced atmospheric stability, and high relative humidity. Strong mid-tropospheric zonal flows in combination with weakened East Asian winter monsoon limited the cold air invasion from the higher latitudes, creating a condition of low pressure gradients in the lower troposphere and near the surface for a large region in central and eastern China. With high background emission levels, the suppressed dispersion of air pollutants eventually caused this severe haze episode affecting a large region in China.

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Notes

  1. Shaanxi Provincial Meteorological Bureau, Special Report Meteorological Information, 2013, No. 14.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by China MOST (2011CB403406), CAS (XDA05110101), NSFC (41290255), and CAS/SAFEA (KZZD-EW-TZ-03). The authors wish to thank the National Meteorological Information Center of the China Meteorological Administration http://www.nmic.gov.cn/) for providing the meteorological data from Chinese weather stations, the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China (http://datacenter.mep.gov.cn/) and Xi’an Environmental Monitoring Station (http://www.xianemc.gov.cn/) for the air quality data of Xi’an, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (http://apps.ecmwf.int/datasets/) for the ERA-Interim reanalysis data used in this paper. The authors also want to thank the editor of TAC and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive suggestions and comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SKLLQG, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 97 Yanxiang Road, Xi’an, 710075, China

    Xiaodong Liu, Ying Hui, Zhaosheng Wang & Xiaoning Xie

  2. CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xiaodong Liu

  3. University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Ying Hui & Zhaosheng Wang

  4. Environmental and Ocean Sciences, University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, 92110, USA

    Zhi-Yong Yin

  5. Climate Center of Shaanxi Province,, Xi’an, 710014, China

    Jiangang Fang

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  1. Xiaodong Liu
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Correspondence to Xiaodong Liu.

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Liu, X., Hui, Y., Yin, ZY. et al. Deteriorating haze situation and the severe haze episode during December 18–25 of 2013 in Xi’an, China, the worst event on record. Theor Appl Climatol 125, 321–335 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-015-1509-8

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