Strong Dependence of U.S. Summertime Air Quality on the Decadal Variability of Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures
We find that summertime air quality in the eastern U.S. displays strong dependence on North Atlantic sea surface temperatures, resulting from large‐scale ocean‐atmosphere interactions. Using observations, reanalysis data sets, and climate model simulations, we further identify a multidecadal variabi...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2017
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5838547/ https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075905 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5838547 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:5838547 2023-05-15T17:32:50+02:00 Strong Dependence of U.S. Summertime Air Quality on the Decadal Variability of Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures Shen, Lu Mickley, Loretta J. Leibensperger, Eric M. Li, Mingwei 2017-12-26 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5838547/ https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075905 en eng John Wiley and Sons Inc. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5838547/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075905 ©2017. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. CC-BY-NC-ND Research Letters Text 2017 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075905 2018-03-18T01:13:08Z We find that summertime air quality in the eastern U.S. displays strong dependence on North Atlantic sea surface temperatures, resulting from large‐scale ocean‐atmosphere interactions. Using observations, reanalysis data sets, and climate model simulations, we further identify a multidecadal variability in surface air quality driven by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). In one‐half cycle (~35 years) of the AMO from cold to warm phase, summertime maximum daily 8 h ozone concentrations increase by 1–4 ppbv and PM2.5 concentrations increase by 0.3–1.0 μg m−3 over much of the east. These air quality changes are related to warmer, drier, and more stagnant weather in the AMO warm phase, together with anomalous circulation patterns at the surface and aloft. If the AMO shifts to the cold phase in future years, it could partly offset the climate penalty on U.S. air quality brought by global warming, an effect which should be considered in long‐term air quality planning. Text North Atlantic PubMed Central (PMC) Geophysical Research Letters 44 24 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Research Letters |
spellingShingle |
Research Letters Shen, Lu Mickley, Loretta J. Leibensperger, Eric M. Li, Mingwei Strong Dependence of U.S. Summertime Air Quality on the Decadal Variability of Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures |
topic_facet |
Research Letters |
description |
We find that summertime air quality in the eastern U.S. displays strong dependence on North Atlantic sea surface temperatures, resulting from large‐scale ocean‐atmosphere interactions. Using observations, reanalysis data sets, and climate model simulations, we further identify a multidecadal variability in surface air quality driven by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). In one‐half cycle (~35 years) of the AMO from cold to warm phase, summertime maximum daily 8 h ozone concentrations increase by 1–4 ppbv and PM2.5 concentrations increase by 0.3–1.0 μg m−3 over much of the east. These air quality changes are related to warmer, drier, and more stagnant weather in the AMO warm phase, together with anomalous circulation patterns at the surface and aloft. If the AMO shifts to the cold phase in future years, it could partly offset the climate penalty on U.S. air quality brought by global warming, an effect which should be considered in long‐term air quality planning. |
format |
Text |
author |
Shen, Lu Mickley, Loretta J. Leibensperger, Eric M. Li, Mingwei |
author_facet |
Shen, Lu Mickley, Loretta J. Leibensperger, Eric M. Li, Mingwei |
author_sort |
Shen, Lu |
title |
Strong Dependence of U.S. Summertime Air Quality on the Decadal Variability of Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_short |
Strong Dependence of U.S. Summertime Air Quality on the Decadal Variability of Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_full |
Strong Dependence of U.S. Summertime Air Quality on the Decadal Variability of Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_fullStr |
Strong Dependence of U.S. Summertime Air Quality on the Decadal Variability of Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_full_unstemmed |
Strong Dependence of U.S. Summertime Air Quality on the Decadal Variability of Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures |
title_sort |
strong dependence of u.s. summertime air quality on the decadal variability of atlantic sea surface temperatures |
publisher |
John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5838547/ https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075905 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5838547/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075905 |
op_rights |
©2017. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075905 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
44 |
container_issue |
24 |
_version_ |
1766131129259130880 |