title: Modelling and prediction of air pollutant transport during the 2014 biomass burning and forest fires in peninsular Southeast Asia.
abstract: During the dry season, from November to April, agricultural biomass burning and forest fires especially from March to late April in mainland Southeast Asian countries of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam frequently cause severe particulate pollution not only in the local areas but also across the whole region and beyond due to the prevailing meteorological conditions. Recently, the BASE-ASIA (Biomass-burning Aerosols in South East Asia: Smoke Impact Assessment) and 7-SEAS (7-South-East Asian Studies) studies have provided detailed analysis and important understandings of the transport of pollutants, in particular, the aerosols and their characteristics across the region due to biomass burning in Southeast Asia (SEA). Following these studies, in this paper, we study the transport of particulate air pollution across the peninsular region of SEA and beyond during the March 2014 burning period using meteorological modelling approach and available ground-based and satellite measurements to ascertain the extent of the aerosol pollution and transport in the region of this particular event. The results show that the air pollutants from SEA biomass burning in March 2014 were transported at high altitude to southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and beyond as has been highlighted in the BASE-ASIA and 7-SEAS studies. There are strong evidences that the biomass burning in SEA especially in mid-March 2014 has not only caused widespread high particle pollution in Thailand (especially the northern region where most of the fires occurred) but also impacted on the air quality in Hong Kong as measured at the ground-based stations and in LulinC (Taiwan) where a remote background monitoring station is located.
authors.affiliation: Environmental Quality, Atmospheric Science and Climate Change Research Group & Faculty of Environment and Labour Safety, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. nguyenduchiep@tdt.edu.vn.|Office of Environment & Heritages, New South Wales, NSW, Australia. nguyenduchiep@tdt.edu.vn.
authors.forename: Hiep Nguyen
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Duc
authors.affiliation: Institute for Environment and Resources/Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Ho Quoc
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Bang
authors.affiliation: Environmental Quality, Atmospheric Science and Climate Change Research Group & Faculty of Environment and Labour Safety, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.|Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Institute of Tropical Biology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
authors.forename: Ngo Xuan
authors.initials: NX
authors.lastname: Quang
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols / Q000032:analysis; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001210:Asia, Southeastern; D018533:Biomass; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D005390:Fires; D065928:Forests; D015386:Hazardous Substances; D008956:Models, Chemical; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis; D012621:Seasons; D012906:Smoke
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D000393:Air Pollutants; D015386:Hazardous Substances; D052638:Particulate Matter; D012906:Smoke
keywords: Biomass burning; CALIPSO aerosol types; Hybrid Single-particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT); MODIS aerosol optical depth; Modelling; Southeast Asia; Weather research forecast (WRF)