Influences of El Nino Modoki event 1994/1995 on aerosol concentrations over southern China

The potential influence of El Nino Modoki event 1994/1995 on tropospheric aerosol concentrations was investigated for southern China using the GEOS-Chem model with meteorological data collected from 1986 to 2006. The results suggest that aerosol concentrations increase during mature phases of El Nino Modoki event 1994/1995 (boreal winter) and decrease during decay phases (boreal spring, summer, and autumn). Aerosol concentrations anomalies were found to be due to circulation changes associated with El Nino Modoki, whereby both the horizontal and vertical transport of aerosol mass fluxes determined the pattern of aerosol concentrations associated with the event. In contrast, the role of wet deposition appeared to be limited. Furthermore, these results suggest that the amplitude of anomalous aerosol concentrations associated with El Nino Modoki event 1994/1995 have the potential to reach approximately 30% of the climatological mean, indicating that El Nino Modoki plays an important role in influencing aerosol concentrations over southern China.