Research
Our research group will be focusing on a wide range of topics on atmospheric chemistry and climate modeling, including:
- Source, chemistry, transport, and sink of air pollutants
- Inverse modeling of greenhouse gases
- Large-scale chemistry-climate interactions
- Climate-chemistry model development
Here are some topics that we have done/currently work on:
[1] Regional ozone air quality
Surface ozone air quality over China. Our analyses reveal that China has become a global hotspot of surface ozone pollution [ES&T Letters, 2018] (News report by NOAA and German Julich (in German)), and shows the fastest ozone increases compared with the urban ozone trends in any other region worldwide reported in the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) [ES&T Letters, 2020] (Adopted by 中国大气臭氧防治蓝皮书(Fig 2.12, Page 18)). We also find unexpected high frequency of nocturnal ozone enhancement events over China and explore the meteorological drivers [ACPD, 2019]
Natural versus anthropogenic sources contributing to ozone pollution in China. We use high-resolution chemical transport model simulations to quantify the natural and anthropogenic sources contributing to surface ozone over China, and explore how unfavorable weather patterns lead to severe ozone pollution [ACP, 2019]. In particular, we find that the presence of intensity soil NOx emissions in the North China Plain significantly reduces the sensitivity of ozone to anthropogenic emissions [Nature Communications, 2021]
Reference:
Lu, X., Ye, X., Zhou, M., Zhao, Y., Weng, H., Kong, H., Li, K., Gao, M., Zheng, B., Lin, J., Zhou, F., Zhang, Q., Wu, D., Zhang, L., and Zhang, Y.: The underappreciated role of agricultural soil nitrogen oxide emissions in ozone pollution regulation in North China, Nature Communications, 12, 2021 [link]
He, C., Lu, X.*, Wang, H., Wang, H., Li, Y., He, G., He, Y., Wang, Y., Zhang, Y., Liu, Y., Fan, Q., and Fan, S.: Unexpected high frequency of nocturnal surface ozone enhancement events over China: Characteristics and mechanisms, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, 2022, [link]
Yin, H., Lu, X.*, Sun, Y.*, Li, K., Gao, M., Zheng, B., and Liu, C.: Unprecedented decline in summertime surface ozone over eastern China in 2020 comparably attributable to anthropogenic emission reductions and meteorology, Environmental Research Letters, 2021 [link]
Lu, X. , Zhang, L., Wang, X., Gao, M., Li, K., Zhang, Y., Yue, X., and Zhang, Y.: Rapid increases in warm-season surface ozone and resulting health impact over China since 2013, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 7, 240-247, 2020 [ESI 1% Highly Cited Paper] [link]
Lu, X. *, Zhang, L.*, Chen, Y., Zhou, M., Zheng, B., Li, K., Liu, Y., Lin, J., Fu, T.-M., and Zhang, Q.: Exploring 2016–2017 surface ozone pollution over China: source contributions and meteorological influences, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 19, 8339-8361, 2019 [ESI 1% Highly Cited Paper] [link]
Lu, X. , Hong, J., Zhang, L., Cooper, O. R., Schultz, M. G., Xu, X., Wang, T., Gao, M., Zhao, Y., and Zhang, Y.: Severe Surface Ozone Pollution in China: A Global Perspective, Environmental Science & Technology Letters, 5, 487-494, 2018. [ESI 0.1% Hot Paper] [ESI 1% Highly Cited Paper] [link]
[2] Inverse modeling of atmospheric methane to understand its sources and sinks
Global and regional methane budget and trend from analytical inversion of methane observations. We use GOSAT satellite data and in situ methane observations in inverse modeling to quantify and attribute the sources, sinks, and trends of atmospheric methane. [ACP, 2021][ACP, 2022]
Reference:
Lu, X.*, Jacob, D. J., Wang, H., Maasakkers, J. D., Zhang, Y., Scarpelli, T. R., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Sulprizio, M. P., Nesser, H., Bloom, A. A., Ma, S., Worden, J. R., Fan, S., Parker, R. J., Boesch, H., Gautam, R., Gordon, D., Moran, M. D., Reuland, F., and Villasana, C. A. O.: Methane emissions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico: evaluation of national methane emission inventories and 2010–2017 sectoral trends by inverse analysis of in situ (GLOBALVIEWplus CH4 ObsPack) and satellite (GOSAT) atmospheric observations, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 22, 395-418, 2022 [link]
Lu, X.*, Jacob, D. J., Zhang, Y.* , Maasakkers, J. D., Sulprizio, M. P., Shen, L., Qu, Z., Scarpelli, T. R., Nesser, H., Yantosca, R. M., Sheng, J., Andrews, A., Parker, R. J., Boech, H., Bloom, A. A., and Ma, S.: Global methane budget and trend, 2010–2017: complementarity of inverse analyses using in situ (GLOBALVIEWplus CH4 ObsPack) and satellite (GOSAT) observations, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 21, 4637-4657, 2021 [link]
[3] Climate-chemistry interactions
Ozone in the Southern Hemisphere tied to climate variability. We show that trends in tropospheric ozone in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) are linked s to the poleward expansion of the SH Hadley circulation. [Science Bulletin, 2019] (Journal Highlight Article)(Research highlight comment by Dr. Owen Cooper)
Lower tropospheric ozone over India and its linkage to the South Asian monsoon. We use satellite observations and multi-decadal model simulation to explore the variability of tropospheric ozone over India and its linkage to the South Asian monsoon. The figure shows that higher ozone concentrations are found in weaker monsoon seasons mainly due to higher ozone net chemical production. [ACP, 2018]
Interactions between tropospheric ozone and weather/climate We summarize how tropospheric ozone and weather/climate with each other and highlight the current gaps [Current Pollution Reports, 2019] (Adopted by 中国大气臭氧防治蓝皮书(Fig 3.6, Page 34)).
Reference:
Lu, X. , Zhang, L., Zhao, Y., Jacob, D., Hu, Y., Hu, L., Gao, M., Liu, X., Petropavlovskikh, I., McClure-Begley, A., and Querel R.: Surface and tropospheric ozone trends in the Southern Hemisphere since 1990: possible linkages to poleward expansion of the Hadley Circulation, Science Bulletin, 64, 400-409, 2019 [Journal Highlight Article] [link]
Lu, X. , Zhang, L., Shen, L.: Meteorology and Climate Influences on Tropospheric Ozone: a Review of Natural Sources, Chemistry, and Transport Patterns, Current Pollution Reports, 5, 238-260, 2019 [link]
Lu, X. , Zhang, L., Liu, X., Gao, M., Zhao, Y., and Shao, J.: Lower tropospheric ozone over India and its linkage to the South Asian monsoon, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 18, 3101-3118, 2018. [link]
[4] Climate-Chemistry model development
Development of the global atmospheric general circulation-chemistry model BCC-GEOS-Chem v1.0: model description and evaluation. We develop the BCC-GEOS-Chem model, i.e. GEOS-Chem coupled with the BCC Atmospheric General Circulation Model (BCC-AGCM). [GMD, 2020] (News report by AOS PKU)The figure below shows the framework of the model, and the evaluation of BCC-GEOS-Chem simulated tropospheric ozone with satellite observations. I also join the development of the Beijing Climate Center Earth System Model (BCC-ESM) [Wu et al., 2020, GMD] and the WRF-GC (WRF-GC: online coupling of WRF and GEOS-Chem) model [Lin et al., 2020, GMD].
Reference:
Lu, X. , Zhang, L., Wu, T., Long, M., Wang, J., Jacob, D., Zhang F., Zhang, J., Eastham, S., Hu, L., Zhu, L., Liu, X., and Wei, M.: Development of the global atmospheric general circulation-chemistry model BCC-GEOS-Chem v1.0: model description and evaluation, Geoscientific Model Development, 13, 3817-3838, 2020 [link]