Relationships between emission sources and air mass characteristics in East Asia during the TRACE-P period

Long-range transport of pollutants influenced by anthropogenic and natural emission sources in East Asia is investigated by using backward trajectory analysis along the NASA TRACE-P flight tracks and a numerical simulation with the three-dimensional chemical transport model (STEM-2k1). Observation-based regional distributions of trace gases are reconstructed using the observations obtained by measurements on board the DC-8 and P3-B aircrafts. Systematic features of the spatial distribution for each species are identified. It is found that the observed concentrations of CO and some NMHCs, and the ratios between these species, are highly associated with the source distribution features and their regional characteristics. Reconstructed fields of the observed and modeled ethane/CO and ethane/propane are found to reproduce well the estimated emission ratios in East Asia. We also investigated the time rate of change of the concentration of species and their ratio along the trajectory. From this analysis the propane/ethane and propane/acetylene ratios are shown to preserve their emission ratios during regional transport. However systematic differences in the propane vs. acetylene/CO relationships are found between the model and observation values. This analysis suggests that further efforts are needed to improve the estimates of biomass burning emissions in SE Asia. The results presented in this paper also suggest ways to further extend the capabilities to derive observation-based inventories.