Impacts of different types and intensities of El Nino events on winter aerosols over China

El Nino is a strong signal of interannual climate variability. The occurrence of an El Nino event may have an important impact on atmospheric pollutant concentrations in China through changes to the regional climate. This study quantitatively examines the differences among the effects of different types and intensities of El Nino events on winter mean aerosol concentration and severe haze days in China. It is found that Central Pacific (CP) El Nino events lead to larger increases in the aerosol burden over southern China relative to the same intensity of Eastern Pacific (EP) events. For El Nino events of the same type but with different intensities, moderate events induce large increases in surface aerosol concentrations over the entire eastern China, while strong and weak events lead to obvious decreases in the surface aerosol concentration over northern China. These differences are mainly attributed to changes in atmospheric circulation, with the resulting changes in aerosol mass transport occurring in response to the different types of El Nino event. Except for moderate CP events, all kinds of El Nino events lead to an increase in severe haze days in winter over northern China. Strong and weak EP El Nino events and weak CP El Nino events lead to an increase in severe haze days in winter over southern China. A change in the south-north transport of aerosols caused by El Nino events also play a dominate role in changing the occurrence of winter haze days in China. (C) 2018 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.