Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 7 3 2007 10.5194/acpd-7-9013-2007 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/9013/2007/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/9013/2007/acpd-7-9013-2007.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/9013/2007/acpd-7-9013-2007.pdf 9013 9051 2007-06-26 Intercontinental transport of pollution and dust aerosols: implications for regional air quality Mian Chin mian.chin@nasa.gov T. Diehl P. Ginoux W. Malm NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, NJ, USA National Parck Service, CIRA, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA We use the global model GOCART to examine the impact of pollution and dust aerosols emitted from their major sources on surface fine particulate matter concentrations at regional and hemispheric scales. Focusing on the North America region in 2001, we use measurements from the IMPROVE network in the United States to evaluate the model-simulated surface concentrations of the "reconstructed fine mass" (RCFM) and its components of ammonium sulfate, black carbon (BC), organic matter (OM), and fine mode dust. We then quantify the RCFM budget in terms of the RCFM composition, type, and origin to find that in the eastern U.S., ammonium sulfate is the dominant RCFM component (~60%) whereas in the western U.S., dust and OM are just as important as sulfate but have considerable seasonal variations, especially in the NW. On an annual average, North America regional pollution accounts for nearly 30–40% of the surface RCFM in the western U.S., and for a much higher proportion of 65–70% in the eastern U.S. By contrast, pollution from outside of North America contributes to just 2–6% (~0.2 μg m^−3) of the total RCFM over the U.S. on an annual average. In comparison, long-range transport of dust is more efficient than that of pollution, which brings 3 to 4 times more fine particles to the U.S. (0.5–0.8 μg m^−3 on an annual average) with a maximum influence in spring and over the NW. Of the major pollution regions, Europe has the largest potential to affect the surface aerosol concentrations in other continents due to its shorter distance from receptor continents and its larger fraction of sulfate-producing precursor gas in the outflow. With the IPCC emission scenario for the year 2000, we find that European emissions increase levels of ammonium sulfate by 1–5 μg m^−3 over the surface of northern Africa and western Asia, and its contribution to eastern Asia (≥0.2 μg m^−3) is twice as much as the Asian contribution to North America. 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