ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss. 1680-7375 Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-2022-199 Insight into seasonal aerosol concentrations, meteorological influence, and transport over the Pan-Third Pole region using multi-sensors satellite and model simulation Rai Mukesh 1 2 Kang Shichang 1 2 Yang Junhua 1 Rupakheti Maheswar https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9618-8735 4 Rupakheti Dipesh https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5436-4086 3 Tripathee Lekhendra https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6210-5105 1 Hu Yuling 1 Chen Xintong 1 2 State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control, Collaborative Innovation Center of Atmospheric Environment and Equipment Technology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Potsdam, Germany 11 04 2022 2022 1 36 Copyright: © 2022 Mukesh Rai et al. 2022 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This article is available from https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2022-199/ The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2022-199/acp-2022-199.pdf

<p>The Pan-Third Pole (PTP) owns complex geography and demographic features where aerosol roles and their impact cannot be neglected as it jeopardizes both the environment and human health. Therefore, we analyzed spatio-temporal aerosol concentration, the influence of meteorological conditions, and underlying aerosol transport mechanisms over the PTP by leveraging observation, satellite dataset, and model outputs. The observation and model simulation result showed that aerosol concentrations exceeded the world health organization (WHO) and China guideline values in most of the locations. This study revealed distinctive seasonality with the highest and lowest aerosol concentrations during the winter and summer seasons, respectively, which could be favored by meteorological conditions and emissions from biomass burning. In response to higher aerosol concentrations, the maximum aerosol optical depth (AOD) values were observed over the major hotspot regions however, interestingly summer high (AOD &gt; 0.8) was observed over the Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP) in South Asia. The columnar aerosol profile indicated that the higher aerosol concentrations were limited within 1&ndash;2 km elevation over the densely populated regions over South Asia and Eastern China. However, the significant aerosols concentrations found to be extended as high as 10 km could potentially be driven by the deep convection process and summer monsoon activities. Regionally, the integrated aerosol transport (IAT) for black carbon (BC) and organic carbon (OC) was found to be maximum over SA. Noticeable OC IAT anomaly (~5 times &gt; annual mean) found during spring that was linked with the biomass burning events. Yet, the dust transportation was found to be originated from the arid land and deserts that prolonged especially during summer followed by spring seasons. This study highlights the driver mechanism in aerosol seasonality, transport mechanism, and further motivates the additional assessment into potential dynamic relation between aerosol species, aerosol atmospheric river, and its societal impact.</p>

 Innovative Research Group Project of the National Natural Science Foundation of China XDA20040501