QINGDAO, China, Mar. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Weather Conditions Conducive to Beijing Severe Haze More Frequent under Climate Change was published online by Nature Climate Change on March 20. The study, finished by the team from Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (QNLM) led by Chief Scientist Prof. Cai Wenju as the first author and the director of QNLM Academician Wu Lixin as the co-author, both professors from Ocean University of China, underlines that QNLM is a worldwide pioneer in the field of climate change research.
Prof. Cai told the journalist that though it was believed haze was directly caused by gaseous pollutants from traffic and industrial emissions, the impact from weather conditions still shouldn't be dismissed. He said that when Beijing haze happens in winter, the north wind on the land surface and the northwest wind in the middle troposphere weakens, while stratification stability in lower atmosphere strengthens. This weather condition is disadvantageous for driving away haze; instead, it helps accumulate it to be even heavier.
The study shows that in the background of global warming, the frequency and the duration of such stable weather condition will increase by 50% and 80% compared with the last century. This trend, which is closely related to a series of ambient atmosphere change, such as the rapid warming of the lower atmosphere caused by global warming and the weakening of the wintertime winds in east Asia, will bring Beijing more frequent severe hazes. Global warming weakens the wintertime winds in east Asia, due to the decrease of land-sea temperature difference in winter. Huge heat capacity in the ocean makes the sea surface temperature (SST) rise more slowly than land surface temperature. Meanwhile, the complex circulation system at the western Pacific and China offshore plays an important role in regulating SST in this region.
QNLM, the first national laboratory approved in China for pilot run, is a key organization that embodies the national will and optimizes the allocation of global science and technology resources by making collaborative innovations, in response to the national major strategic demands. Recently, QNLM is implementing major scientific projects including "Transparent Ocean" in support of accurate prediction of the marine environment and climate change. In the meantime, QNLM is preparing for building an international center of ocean and climate prediction by working with such organizations as the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) / Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory of Princeton University, Texas A&M University, etc. The ultra-high resolution prediction and evaluation of the marine environment and climate for the upcoming decades will be fulfilled by High Performance Computing Center in QNLM.
With increasingly urgent demand of coordination in scientific research, QNLM is ready to contribute to global climate change research as a comprehensively collaborative innovation platform. According to Prof. Pan Kehou, Secretary General of the Academic Committee of QNLM, QNLM will make continuous effort to find the scientific solutions to the issues that concern the well-being of the Chinese people. Besides, haze management is a common responsibility of all countries in the world, QNLM should take the responsibility to lead and promote the international cooperation on energy saving and emission reduction with scientific research institutions from other countries and regions, and to contribute to a better environment and development of the ecological civilization.
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