Articles | Volume 25, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11951-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-11951-2025
Research article
 | 
02 Oct 2025
Research article |  | 02 Oct 2025

Evolution of aerosol optical depth over China in 2010–2024: increasing importance of meteorological influences

Cheng Fan, Gerrit de Leeuw, Xiaoxi Yan, Jiantao Dong, Hanqing Kang, Chengwei Fang, Zhengqiang Li, and Ying Zhang

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Cited articles

Bacmeister, J. T., Wehner, M. F., Neale, R. B., Gettelman, A., Hannay, C., Lauritzen, P. H., Caron, J. M., and Truesdale, J. E.: Exploratory High-Resolution Climate Simulations using the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM), J. Climate, 27, 3073–3099, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00387.1, 2014. 
Banks, A., Kooperman, G. J., and Xu, Y.: Meteorological Influences on Anthropogenic PM2.5 in Future Climates: Species Level Analysis in the Community Earth System Model v2, Earths Future, 10, e2021EF002298, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002298, 2022. 
de Leeuw, G., Sogacheva, L., Rodriguez, E., Kourtidis, K., Georgoulias, A. K., Alexandri, G., Amiridis, V., Proestakis, E., Marinou, E., Xue, Y., and van der A, R.: Two decades of satellite observations of AOD over mainland China using ATSR-2, AATSR and MODIS/Terra: data set evaluation and large-scale patterns, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 1573–1592, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1573-2018, 2018. 
de Leeuw, G., Fan, C., Li, Z., Dong, J., Li, Y., Ou, Y., and Zhu, S.: Spatiotemporal variation and provincial scale differences of the AOD across China during 2000–2021, Atmos. Pollut. Res., 13, 101359, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2022.101359, 2022. 
de Leeuw, G., Kang, H., Fan, C., Li, Z., Fang, C., and Zhang, Y.: Meteorological and anthropogenic contributions to changes in the Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) over China during the last decade, Atmos. Environ., 301, 119676, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2023.119676, 2023. 
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Short summary
This study describes the analysis of time series of the MODIS-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) over China between 2010 and 2024. Emission reduction policies were effective with respect to reducing the AOD until 2018. Thereafter, the overall reduction until the end of the study was very small due to unfavorable meteorological factors cancelling favorable anthropogenic effects and resulting in an AOD increase during extended periods. The variations over different areas in China are discussed.
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