Articles | Volume 26, issue 16
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11543-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11543-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
17 Aug 2026
Research article |
| 17 Aug 2026
| 17 Aug 2026
Spatiotemporal linkage and transmission of urban heat islands in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration: the role of urban heat advection
Jiesheng Xue
State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China
Yuanjian Yang
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
State Key Laboratory of Climate System Prediction and Risk Management, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China
Guoyu Ren
Department of Atmospheric Science, School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430070, China
Simone Lolli
CNR-IMAA, Contrada S. Loja snc, Tito Scalo (PZ), 85050, Italy
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Jiawei Yan, Lu Zhang, Yizhou Xu, Xinfeng Ling, Weiwei Ding, Yubin Li, Yuan Wang, and Yuanjian Yang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3201, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3201, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Paddy fields play an important role in greenhouse gas budgets and carbon cycling. Based on in-situ observation, we found that under calm nighttime conditions, weak turbulent mixing renders carbon dioxide and methane accumulate near the surface, whereas short bursts of turbulence rapidly disperse them upward. This transport processes cannot be fully described by conventional physical framework due to the influence of submeso motions. The understanding is helpful to improve the relevant models.
Fu Luo, Yuanjian Yang, Ting Sun, Zuofang Zheng, Xueyan Bi, Guoyu Ren, and Simone Lolli
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3392, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3392, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Cities are hotter than surrounding countryside, and heatwaves intensify this contrast. How combined warming reshapes air above different urban areas remains unclear. Using a high-resolution model, we examined two 2020 heatwaves over Guangzhou, China, finding extra warming strongest above densely built neighbourhoods and weakest over open low-rise areas. Dense areas retain heat overnight, adding to next-day warming and showing how urban form shapes extreme heat from surface to lower atmosphere.
Wanju Li, Lifang Sheng, Xueyan Bi, Zehao Huang, Yali Luo, Shiqi Xiao, Chao Liu, Yang Yang, Jiandong Wang, Yuanjian Yang, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 11943–11965, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11943-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11943-2026, 2026
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Heavy rain in South China often strikes suddenly far from weather fronts and is hard to forecast. Using five years of radar wind data and rainfall records from Guangdong, we studied 226 events and found warning signs one to four hours before onset that differ by region. In the west, strengthening low-level winds drive the rain; in the Pearl River Delta, friction reshapes the surface wind; in the east, warm surface air stores energy that fuels the storm.
Wenjie Zhang, Mengxi Qu, Ranhao Sun, Jiarui Zhao, Guicai Ning, Aziz Inamov, Zokhid Mamatkulovd, Di Zhou, Bakhtiyor Pulatov, and Yuanjian Yang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2290, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2290, 2026
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MODIS satellite temperature data lack full validation across China. Using 18 years of balloon data from 74 stations, we evaluated its accuracy, lower-atmosphere stability, and inversion detection. Nighttime accuracy exceeds daytime; upper layers outperform lower layers . A bias exists at 700 hPa. Stability retrieval is more reliable by day. Inversion detection rates are low: 6.6 % day, 13.1 % night. This guides appropriate use of MOD07_L2 in atmospheric science, hydrology, and ecology.
Carina Inés Argañaraz, Andreu Salcedo-Bosch, Simone Lolli, and Gabriele Curci
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Yunhua Chang, Tianhao Ding, Haifeng Yu, Yuanjian Yang, Liang Zhu, Xiaozheng Liu, and Wen Tan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 1515–1528, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1515-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1515-2026, 2026
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We validate a novel chemical ionization mass spectrometer for simultaneous measurements of volatile organic and inorganic compounds. A field comparison with a Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy analyzer for NH3 validated its accuracy and superior time resolution for capturing transient pollution peaks. Versatility is demonstrated across three key applications: stationary urban monitoring, mobile source mapping, and industrial process control.
Daihao Yu, Qiuwei Xia, Saifen Yu, Yixiang Chen, Keyi Xu, Haobin Han, Jianjun Guo, Kexin Guo, Jiadong Hu, Zhen Zhang, Jing Cai, Yuanjian Yang, and Haiyun Xia
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6470, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6470, 2026
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Industrial parks are critical nodes in the global carbon cycle. This study combines high-resolution lidar observations and the WRF-GHG model to examine CO2 accumulation and dispersion in a semi-enclosed bay. Distinct diurnal patterns emerge: nighttime accumulation and daytime dispersion driven by terrain, atmospheric stability and sea breezes. WRF-GHG captures temporal trends, but it underestimates CO2 levels, indicating limitations in emission inventories and terrain-wind interactions.
Yuanjian Yang, Chenjie Qian, Minxuan Zhang, Chenchao Zhan, Zhenxin Liu, Pak Wai Chan, Xueyan Bi, Meng Gao, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 19, 1345–1363, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1345-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1345-2026, 2026
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Up to ~ 40 % of ozone pollution in the Greater Bay Area of China is related to tropical cyclones. The O3 pollution was found to be transported from inland areas to coastal areas. The transport process can be roughly divided into three phases: downdraft control, horizontal transport, and vertical mixing.
Bo Zheng, Jason Blake Cohen, Lingxiao Lu, Wei Hu, Pravash Tiwari, Simone Lolli, Andrea Garzelli, Hui Su, and Kai Qin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 1931–1946, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1931-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-1931-2026, 2026
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Simone Lolli, Erica K. Dolinar, Jasper R. Lewis, Andreu Salcedo-Bosch, James R. Campbell, and Ellsworth J. Welton
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 411–426, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-411-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-411-2026, 2026
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Over the past twenty years, continuous lidar observations at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have assessed the radiative impact of cirrus clouds on the Earth–atmosphere system. Findings show these clouds increasingly trap heat as surface reflectivity drops with less snow and ice, contributing to local warming. Continued cirrus monitoring is crucial to refine climate forecasts and support effective climate action.
Jialu Xu, Yingjie Zhang, Yuying Wang, Xing Yan, Bin Zhu, Chunsong Lu, Yuanjian Yang, Yele Sun, Junhui Zhang, Xiaofan Zuo, Zhanghanshu Han, and Rui Zhang
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We conducted a year-long study in Nanjing to explore how the height of the atmospheric boundary layer affects fine particle pollution. We found that low boundary layers in winter trap pollutants like nitrate and primary particles, while higher layers in summer help form secondary pollutants like sulfate and organic aerosols. These findings show that boundary layer dynamics are key to understanding and managing seasonal air pollution.
Junhui Zhang, Yuying Wang, Jialu Xu, Xiaofan Zuo, Chunsong Lu, Bin Zhu, Yuanjian Yang, Xing Yan, and Yele Sun
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 17413–17428, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17413-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17413-2025, 2025
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Tianwen Wei, Mengya Wang, Kenan Wu, Jinlong Yuan, Haiyun Xia, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1841–1857, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1841-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1841-2025, 2025
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Fengjiao Chen, Yuanjian Yang, Lu Yu, Yang Li, Weiguang Liu, Yan Liu, and Simone Lolli
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Tao Shi, Yuanjian Yang, Ping Qi, and Simone Lolli
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Chaman Gul, Shichang Kang, Yuanjian Yang, Xinlei Ge, and Dong Guo
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1144, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1144, 2024
Preprint archived
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Long-term variations in upper atmospheric temperature and water vapor in the selected domains of time and space are presented. The temperature during the past two decades showed a cooling trend and water vapor showed an increasing trend and had an inverse relation with temperature in selected domains of space and time. Seasonal temperature variations are distinct, with a summer minimum and a winter maximum. Our results can be an early warning indication for future climate change.
Cristina Gil-Díaz, Michäel Sicard, Adolfo Comerón, Daniel Camilo Fortunato dos Santos Oliveira, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Jasper R. Lewis, Ellsworth J. Welton, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1197–1216, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1197-2024, 2024
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In this paper, a statistical study of cirrus geometrical and optical properties based on 4 years of continuous ground-based lidar measurements with the Barcelona (Spain) Micro Pulse Lidar (MPL) is analysed. The cloud optical depth, effective column lidar ratio and linear cloud depolarisation ratio have been calculated by a new approach to the two-way transmittance method, which is valid for both ground-based and spaceborne lidar systems. Their associated errors are also provided.
Simone Lolli, Michaël Sicard, Francesco Amato, Adolfo Comeron, Cristina Gíl-Diaz, Tony C. Landi, Constantino Munoz-Porcar, Daniel Oliveira, Federico Dios Otin, Francesc Rocadenbosch, Alejandro Rodriguez-Gomez, Andrés Alastuey, Xavier Querol, and Cristina Reche
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12887–12906, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12887-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12887-2023, 2023
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We evaluated the long-term trends and seasonal variability of the vertically resolved aerosol properties over the past 17 years in Barcelona. Results shows that air quality is improved, with a consistent drop in PM concentrations at the surface, as well as the column aerosol optical depth. The results also show that natural dust outbreaks are more likely in summer, with aerosols reaching an altitude of 5 km, while in winter, aerosols decay as an exponential with a scale height of 600 m.
Yuan Wang, Qiangqiang Yuan, Tongwen Li, Yuanjian Yang, Siqin Zhou, and Liangpei Zhang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3597–3622, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3597-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3597-2023, 2023
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We propose a novel spatiotemporally self-supervised fusion method to establish long-term daily seamless global XCO2 and XCH4 products. Results show that the proposed method achieves a satisfactory accuracy that distinctly exceeds that of CAMS-EGG4 and is superior or close to those of GOSAT and OCO-2. In particular, our fusion method can effectively correct the large biases in CAMS-EGG4 due to the issues from assimilation data, such as the unadjusted anthropogenic emission for COVID-19.
Yilin Chen, Yuanjian Yang, and Meng Gao
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1279–1294, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1279-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1279-2023, 2023
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The Guangdong–Hong Kong–Macao Greater Bay Area suffers from summertime air pollution events related to typhoons. The present study leverages machine learning to predict typhoon-associated air quality over the area. The model evaluation shows that the model performs excellently. Moreover, the change in meteorological drivers of air quality on typhoon days and non-typhoon days suggests that air pollution control strategies should have different focuses on typhoon days and non-typhoon days.
Hui Zhang, Ming Luo, Yongquan Zhao, Lijie Lin, Erjia Ge, Yuanjian Yang, Guicai Ning, Jing Cong, Zhaoliang Zeng, Ke Gui, Jing Li, Ting On Chan, Xiang Li, Sijia Wu, Peng Wang, and Xiaoyu Wang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 359–381, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-359-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-359-2023, 2023
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We generate the first monthly high-resolution (1 km) human thermal index collection (HiTIC-Monthly) in China over 2003–2020, in which 12 human-perceived temperature indices are generated by LightGBM. The HiTIC-Monthly dataset has a high accuracy (R2 = 0.996, RMSE = 0.693 °C, MAE = 0.512 °C) and describes explicit spatial variations for fine-scale studies. It is freely available at https://zenodo.org/record/6895533 and https://data.tpdc.ac.cn/disallow/036e67b7-7a3a-4229-956f-40b8cd11871d.
Fan Wang, Gregory R. Carmichael, Jing Wang, Bin Chen, Bo Huang, Yuguo Li, Yuanjian Yang, and Meng Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 13341–13353, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13341-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13341-2022, 2022
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Unprecedented urbanization in China has led to serious urban heat island (UHI) issues, exerting intense heat stress on urban residents. We find diverse influences of aerosol pollution on urban heat island intensity (UHII) under different circulations. Our results also highlight the role of black carbon in aggravating UHI, especially during nighttime. It could thus be targeted for cooperative management of heat islands and aerosol pollution.
Zexia Duan, Zhiqiu Gao, Qing Xu, Shaohui Zhou, Kai Qin, and Yuanjian Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4153–4169, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4153-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4153-2022, 2022
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Land–atmosphere interactions over the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) in China are becoming more varied and complex, as the area is experiencing rapid land use changes. In this paper, we describe a dataset of microclimate and eddy covariance variables at four sites in the YRD. This dataset has potential use cases in multiple research fields, such as boundary layer parametrization schemes, evaluation of remote sensing algorithms, and development of climate models in typical East Asian monsoon regions.
Xiaodan Zhang, Guoyu Ren, Yuda Yang, He Bing, Zhixin Hao, and Panfeng Zhang
Clim. Past, 18, 1775–1796, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1775-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1775-2022, 2022
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Applying yearly drought and flood records from historical documents and precipitation data in the period of instrumental measurements, this study constructs a time series of extreme droughts and floods in the Hanjiang River Basin from 1426–2017 and analyzes the temporal and spatial characteristics of the extreme drought and flood event variations.
Lian Zong, Yuanjian Yang, Haiyun Xia, Meng Gao, Zhaobin Sun, Zuofang Zheng, Xianxiang Li, Guicai Ning, Yubin Li, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6523–6538, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6523-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6523-2022, 2022
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Heatwaves (HWs) paired with higher ozone (O3) concentration at surface level pose a serious threat to human health. Taking Beijing as an example, three unfavorable synoptic weather patterns were identified to dominate the compound HW and O3 pollution events. Under the synergistic stress of HWs and O3 pollution, public mortality risk increased, and synoptic patterns and urbanization enhanced the compound risk of events in Beijing by 33.09 % and 18.95 %, respectively.
Shaohui Zhou, Yuanjian Yang, Zhiqiu Gao, Xingya Xi, Zexia Duan, and Yubin Li
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 757–773, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-757-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-757-2022, 2022
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Our research has determined the possible relationship between Weibull natural wind mesoscale parameter c and shape factor k with height under the conditions of a desert steppe terrain in northern China, which has great potential in wind power generation. We have gained an enhanced understanding of the seasonal changes in the surface roughness of the desert grassland and the changes in the incoming wind direction.
Shihan Chen, Yuanjian Yang, Fei Deng, Yanhao Zhang, Duanyang Liu, Chao Liu, and Zhiqiu Gao
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 735–756, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-735-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-735-2022, 2022
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This paper proposes a method for evaluating canopy UHI intensity (CUHII) at high resolution by using remote sensing data and machine learning with a random forest (RF) model. The spatial distribution of CUHII was evaluated at 30 m resolution based on the output of the RF model. The present RF model framework for real-time monitoring and assessment of high-resolution CUHII provides scientific support for studying the changes and causes of CUHII.
Xinyan Li, Yuanjian Yang, Jiaqin Mi, Xueyan Bi, You Zhao, Zehao Huang, Chao Liu, Lian Zong, and Wanju Li
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7007–7023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7007-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7007-2021, 2021
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A random forest (RF) model framework for Fengyun-4A (FY-4A) daytime and nighttime quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) is established using FY-4A multi-band spectral information, cloud parameters, high-density precipitation observations and physical quantities from reanalysis data. The RF model of FY-4A QPE has a high accuracy in estimating precipitation at the heavy-rain level or below, which has advantages for quantitative estimation of summer precipitation over East Asia in future.
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Short summary
With the reduction in inter-city distances, the wind carries heat downstream to neighboring cities. Focusing on the urban agglomeration area in China, we demonstrate the spatiotemporal variations of this heat transfer process, the moderating influence of meteorological factors, and quantify its effect on the intensity of the urban heat island in downstream cities. The results highlight the necessity of considering inter-city heat interactions in thermal risk management.
With the reduction in inter-city distances, the wind carries heat downstream to neighboring...
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