A Model for Predicting Coastal Aerosol Size Distributions in Chinese Seas

Aerosol is a key factor in the study of interactions between light and radiation. In coastal environments, the diversity and complexity of aerosol components make it difficult to accurately determine their microphysical and optical properties. In this paper, the analysis focuses on the aerosol size distribution (ASD) prediction in the coasts of the South China Sea (SCS, Maoming) and the Yellow Sea (YS, Qingdao). Due to large differences in spatial scale with respect to geographical and meteorological conditions, ASD in Maoming and Qingdao showed large differences. On the basis of Navy Aerosol Model (NAM) and Piazzola et al.'s models, combined with the observation data of Maoming and Qingdao, a coastal aerosol model (CAM) was developed to predict ASD for Chinese coastal environment. The aerosol concentration is calculated by the function of fetch and wind speed. Although the aerosol distributions at the two sites are quite different, the CAM is found to be applicable to both sites. Furthermore, the CAM was used in predicting the ASDs in the SCS against the research ship Shenkuo cruise data. The model results were in agreement with the measured values in coastal zone. The model presented in this work would be a useful tool to model ASDs in Chinese coastal seas. Plain Language Summary This study focuses on the aerosol size distribution (ASD) prediction in the coasts of the South China Sea (SCS, Maoming) and the Yellow Sea (YS, Qingdao). Maoming and Qingdao showed large differences in the ASD due to the differences in geographical environment, climatic conditions. Based on previous studies and observation data, a coastal aerosol model (CAM) was developed to predict ASD for Chinese coastal environment. A variable, that is, the fetch, was introduced in CAM, instead of the dimensionless air mass parameter (AMP) used in the existed prediction models, to describe the coast effect on the ASD. Although the aerosol distributions at the two sites are quite different, experimental validation results both showed that the CAM was in reasonable agreement with the measured data. ASDs predictions compared with the SCS measurements (from the research ship Shenkuo cruise) also showed the good performance of CAM in coastal zones.