Long Range Transport of Southeast Asian PM2.5 Pollution to Northern Thailand during High Biomass Burning Episodes

Teerachai Amnuaylojaroen, Jirarat Inkom, Radshadaporn Janta and Vanisa Surapipith
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Teerachai Amnuaylojaroen: School of Energy and Environment, University of Phayao, Phayao 56000, Thailand
Jirarat Inkom: School of Energy and Environment, University of Phayao, Phayao 56000, Thailand
Radshadaporn Janta: National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai 53000, Thailand
Vanisa Surapipith: National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand, Chiang Mai 53000, Thailand

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-14

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the potential contribution of biomass burning in PM2.5 pollution in Northern Thailand. We applied the coupled atmospheric and air pollution model which is based on the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and a Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory Model (HYSPLIT). The model output was compared to the ground-based measurements from the Pollution Control Department (PCD) to examine the model performance. As a result of the model evaluation, the meteorological variables agreed well with observations using the Index of Agreement (IOA) with ranges of 0.57 to 0.79 for temperature and 0.32 to 0.54 for wind speed, while the fractional biases of temperature and wind speed were 1.3 to 2.5 °C and 1.2 to 2.1 m/s. Analysis of the model and hotspots from the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) found that biomass burning from neighboring countries has greater potential to contribute to air pollution in northern Thailand than national emissions, which is indicated by the number of hotspot locations in Burma being greater than those in Thailand by two times under the influence of two major channels of Asian Monsoons, including easterly and northwesterly winds that bring pollutants from neighboring counties towards northern Thailand.

Keywords: PM2.5; biomass burning; long-range transport of PM2.5; source of PM2.5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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