On the pathways and timescales of intercontinental air pollution transport

Abstract

This paper presents results of a 1‐year simulation of the transport of six passive tracers, released over the continents according to an emission inventory for carbon monoxide (CO). Lagrangian concepts are introduced to derive age spectra of the tracer concentrations on a global grid in order to determine the timescales and pathways of pollution export from the continents. Calculating these age spectra is equivalent to simulating many (quasi continuous) plumes, each starting at a different time, which are subsequently merged. Movies of the tracer dispersion have been made available on an Internet website. It is found that emissions from Asia experience the fastest vertical transport, whereas European emissions have the strongest tendency to remain in the lower troposphere. European emissions are transported primarily into the Arctic and appear to be the major contributor to the Arctic haze problem. Tracers from an upwind continent first arrive over a receptor continent in the upper troposphere, typically after some 4 days. Only later foreign tracers also arrive in the lower troposphere. Assuming a 2‐day lifetime, the domestic tracers dominate total tracer columns over all continents except over Australia where foreign tracers account for 20% of the tracer mass. In contrast, for a 20‐day lifetime even continents with high domestic emissions receive more than half of their tracer burden from foreign continents. Three special regions were identified where tracers are transported to, and tracer dilution is slow. Future field studies therefore should be deployed in the following regions: (1) In the winter, the Asia tracer accumulates over Indonesia and the Indian Ocean, a region speculated to be a stratospheric fountain. (2) In the summer, the highest concentrations of the Asia tracer are found in the Middle East. (3) In the summer, the highest concentrations of the North America tracer are found in the Mediterranean.