Trend of acid rain and neutralization by yellow sand in east Asia—a numerical study

Acid rain and its neutralization by yellow sand in East Asia were investigated numerically by an Air Quality Prediction Modeling System (AQPMS). AQPMS consists of advection, diffusion, dry and wet deposition, gas-phase chemistry and the liquid-phase chemistry. A new deflation module of the yellow sand (Asian soil dust) was designed to provide explicit information on the dust loading. Different from the previous ones for Sahara and Australian deserts, this new one includes three major predictors, i.e., the friction velocity, the surface humidity and the predominant weather system, while this module was linked to the AQPMS. For model validation, the predicted pH values and sulfate- and nitrate-ion levels of precipitation, together with the surface concentrations of gaseous pollutants, were compared with the measured values at atmospheric monitoring stations, and a reasonable agreement was obtained. Firstly, the trend of the acid rain in East Asia due to the rapid increase of Chinese pollutants emission was investigated, and a remarkably rapid increase of acid rain area was predicted in the period from 1985 to 1995, the monthly mean pH values showing the decrease of 0.3–0.8 in the area from the center to northeast in China, and 0.1–0.2 even in Japan and Korea. Secondly, the simulation results of April 1995 exhibited a strong neutralization of the precipitation by the yellow sand. The monthly mean pH values in the northern China showed a remarkable increase of 0.6–1.8 by neutralization effect of the yellow sand, while the increases in the southern China were less than 0.1. Even in Korea and Japan the yellow sand caused the increase of the pH value of rain by 0.1–0.2.