Shift in the Temporal Trend of Boundary Layer Height in China Using Long‐Term (1979–2016) Radiosonde Data

The knowledge regarding how the boundary layer height (BLH) changes over time is still poor. Here we analyze the spatial and temporal changes in radiosonde‐derived measurements of BLH over China from 1979 to 2016. A qualitatively robust and abrupt change of BLH occurred in 2004. Over the former peri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inGeophysical research letters Vol. 46; no. 11; pp. 6080 - 6089
Main Authors Guo, Jianping, Li, Yuan, Cohen, Jason Blake, Li, Jian, Chen, Dandan, Xu, Hui, Liu, Lin, Yin, Jinfang, Hu, Kaixi, Zhai, Panmao
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington John Wiley & Sons, Inc 16.06.2019
Subjects
Air pollution
Boundary layer height
Boundary layers
China
Height
Humidity
Meteorology
radiosonde
Radiosonde data
Radiosondes
Relative humidity
shift
Soil
Soil moisture
Soil stability
Surface temperature
Temperature
Temporal variations
trend
China
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Summary:The knowledge regarding how the boundary layer height (BLH) changes over time is still poor. Here we analyze the spatial and temporal changes in radiosonde‐derived measurements of BLH over China from 1979 to 2016. A qualitatively robust and abrupt change of BLH occurred in 2004. Over the former period (from 1979 to 2003) a spatially uniform increase was found in the BLH, while over the latter period BLH decreased in a spatially nonuniform way. Second, the meteorological influence on the rising BLH was determined to have a negative association with soil moisture, lower tropospheric stability and relative humidity, and a positive association with the near‐surface temperature. Yet, there was a different influence of meteorology on the BLH over the latter period, where a negative association was revealed with Tsfc and relative humidity. These findings shed new light on the long‐term changes in air pollution across China. Key Points Long‐term (1979‐2016) trend in the boundary layer height (BLH) over China was examined using newly released radiosonde data Robust trend analyses revealed a significant temporal disparity in the trend of BLH, with a robust reversal occurring in 2004 The meteorological influences on the rising and declining BLH were determined to be quite different
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1029/2019GL082666