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A record-breaking severe ozone (O3) pollution episode occurred in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) in early autumn 2019 when the PRD was under the influence of a Pacific subtropical high followed by Typhoon Mitag. In this study, we analyzed the effects of meteorological and photochemical processes on the O3 concentration in the PRD during this episode by carrying out the Weather Research Forecast–Community Multiscale Air Quality (WRF-CMAQ) model simulations. Results showed that low relative humidity, high boundary layer height, weak northerly surface wind, and strong downdrafts were the main meteorological factors contributing to O3 pollution. Moreover, delayed sea breezes that lasted into the night would transport O3 from the sea back to the land and resulted in secondary O3 maxima at night. In addition, O3 and its precursors stored in the residual layer above the surface layer at night can be mixed down to the surface in the next morning, further enhancing the daytime ground-level O3 concentration on the following day. Photochemical production of O3 , with a daytime average production rate of about 7.2 ppbh-1 (parts per billion), is found to be the predominate positive contributor to the O3 budget of the boundary layer (0–1260 m) during the entire O3 episode, while the horizontal and vertical transport fluxes are the dominant negative contributors. This O3 episode accounted for 10 out of the yearly total of 51 d when the maximum daily 8 h average (MDA8) O3 concentration exceeded the national standard of 75 ppb in the PRD in 2019. Based on these results, we propose that the enhanced photochemical production of O3 during the episode is a major cause of the most severe O3 pollution year since the official O3 observation started in the PRD in 2006. Moreover, since this O3 episode is a synoptic-scale phenomenon covering the entire eastern China, we also suggest that the enhanced photochemical production of O3 in this O3 episode is a major cause of the extraordinarily high O3 concentrations observed in eastern China in 2019. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the seasonal variations of Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) are simulated with a 2.5-layer model governed by a set of perturbation equations, considering the effects of boundary layer friction convergence, diabatic heating, moisture feedback and background flow, under a non-resting basic state. The governing perturbation equations are written under a basic state defined by the 30-year climatology of observation (reanalysis), in which daily/monthly climatic wind, geopotential and moisture act as a background forcing influencing the evolution and propagation of MJO. Under this climatic background state, the precipitation of basic state is no longer zero but equal to the 30-year precipitation climatology, which is generally larger in the tropical region and has a dominant seasonal cycle in the subtropical region. Diabatic heating of convection is the key factor that produces the coupled Rossby-Kelvin structure of MJO and is a function of precipitation perturbation in the model. In common practice, precipitation perturbation can be derived from precipitation parametrization schemes, which usually consider only positive values during calculation because negative precipitation does not physically exist in the real world. However, the model in the study is run under a non-zero rainfall background, thus precipitation perturbation is not constraint to be non-negative. In this case, "negative precipitation" area is referred to as abnormally dry area, and leads to "diabatic cooling" (i.e. weaker diabatic heating compared to the basic state) to the troposphere.Model simulations show that the climatic state and "negative precipitation" are two indispensable factors to the MJO seasonal variations. The climatic state provides a crucial background circulation and moisture distribution that favors MJOs / Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillations (BSISOs), as reported in previous studies. On top of the climatic state, our results indicate that the "negative precipitation" effect is also essential to the simulation of MJO in different seasons. The MJO seasonal variations are less obvious if the model only incorporates positive precipitation. Results also reveal that the "negative precipitation" effectively damps shortwaves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]