Regional Climate Effects of Biomass Burning and Dust in East Asia: Evidence From Modeling and Observation

Abstract

Abstract This study integrates data from regional model simulations, reanalysis data set, radiosonde observations, lidar measurements, and satellite products to evaluate the direct radiative forcing effect of biomass burning and dust over East Asia. During March and April, we find an overall cooling effect of the dust of −5 to −9 W/m 2 . Biomass burning aerosols from Peninsular Southeast Asia exhibit a warming effect of 5–10 W/m 2 over the source area, lower than that over the downwind area of 10–20 W/m 2 because of significantly higher cloud coverage in South China. Dust and biomass burning aerosols are found to cool the near surface layer (0–1 km) by −0.5 and −0.3 K, respectively, and warm the upper air (1–5 km) by +0.1 and +0.2 K, respectively. In Taipei, simultaneous presences of dust and biomass burning lead to cooling of near‐surface air by −1.5 K and warming of upper air by +1 K.