Ruilong Zhang

Enhanced haze pollution by black carbon in megacities in China

Aerosol-planetary boundary layer (PBL) interactions have been found to enhance air pollution in megacities in China. We show that black carbon (BC) aerosols play the key role in modifying the PBL meteorology and hence enhancing the haze pollution. With model simulations and data analysis from various field observations in December 2013, we demonstrate that BC induces heating in the PBL, particularly in the upper PBL, and the resulting decreased surface heat flux substantially depresses the development of PBL and consequently enhances the occurrences of extreme haze pollution episodes. We define this process as the “dome effect” of BC and suggest an urgent need for reducing BC emissions as an efficient way to mitigate the extreme haze pollution in megacities of China.

Evidence and effects of the sunrise enhancement of the equatorial vertical plasma drift in the F region ionosphere

Recent studies based on the satellite observations demonstrated that the equatorial vertical plasma drift can also enhance near sunrise in a way similar to the prereversal enhancement. However, it is not clear whether the signature of this sunrise enhancement appears in observations with other sounding techniques. In this work, we explore the Jicamarca (12°S, 283.2°E) incoherent scatter radar measurements to present the evidence of sunrise enhancement in vertical plasma drift on 12 May and 10 June 2004, which are under magnetically quiet and solar minimum conditions. The effects of the sunrise enhancement on the ionosphere are, for the first time, investigated by analyzing the ionograms recorded by the Digisonde Portable Sounder at Jicamarca and conducting the Theoretical Ionospheric Model of the Earth in Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The observations showed that, during the sunrise enhancement, the F2 layer peak height is lifted remarkably, and the F2 layer peak density and bottomside electron density tend to decrease compared to the days without sunrise enhancements. The simulations indicated that the sunrise enhancement drift can lift the equatorial ionosphere to higher heights and distort the equatorial electron density profiles. What is more, the simulations display an F3 layer in the equatorial F region during the sunrise enhancement, and a new F2 layer develops at lower altitudes under the jointed control of the usual photochemical and dynamical processes.

Equatorial ionospheric electrodynamics during solar flares

Previous investigations on ionospheric responses to solar flares focused mainly on the photoionization caused by the increased X-rays and extreme ultra-violet irradiance. However, little attention was paid to the related electrodynamics. In this letter, we explored the equatorial electric field (EEF) and electrojet (EEJ) in the ionosphere at Jicamarca during flares from 1998 to 2008. It is verified that solar flares increase dayside eastward EEJ but decrease dayside eastward EEF, revealing a negative correlation between EEJ and EEF. The decreased EEF weakens the equatorial fountain effect and depresses the low latitude electron density. During flares, the enhancement in the Cowling conductivity may modulate ionospheric dynamo and decrease the EEF. Besides, the decreased EEF is closely related to the enhanced ASYH index that qualitatively reflects Region 2 field aligned current (R2 FAC). We speculated that solar flares may also decrease EEF through enhancing R2 FAC that leads to an overshielding-like effect.

The storm time evolution of the ionospheric disturbance plasma drifts

In this paper, we use the C/NOFS and ROCSAT-1 satellites observations to analyze the storm time evolution of the disturbance plasma drifts in a 24-hour local time scale during three magnetic storms driven by long-lasting southward IMF Bz. The disturbance plasma drifts during the three storms present some common features in the periods dominated by the disturbance dynamo. The newly formed disturbance plasma drifts are upward and westward at night, and downward and eastward during daytime. Further, the disturbance plasma drifts are gradually evolved to present significant local time shifts. The westward disturbance plasma drifts gradually migrate from nightside to dayside. Meanwhile, the dayside downward disturbance plasma drifts become enhanced and shift to later local time. The local time shifts in disturbance plasma drifts are suggested to be mainly attributed to the evolution of the disturbance winds. The strong disturbance winds arisen around midnight can constantly corotate to later local time. At dayside the westward and equatorward disturbance winds can drive the F region dynamo to produce the poleward and westward polarization electric fields (or the westward and downward disturbance drifts). The present results indicate that the disturbance winds corotated to later local time can affect the local time features of the disturbance dynamo electric field.