Chinese-led study links El Niño to increases in ozone in China
- Levels of the air pollutant rise in southern parts of the country during El Niño summers
- Pollution-control policies should factor in the climate pattern, lead researcher says
The study, published last month in the quarterly, peer-reviewed journal Environmental Research Letters, found that the climate phenomenon ENSO, or El Niño-Southern Oscillation, was a crucial factor in ozone variation.
“The study suggests that when we make policies on pollution control, we should consider the impact of ENSO,” said Yang Yang, lead author of the study and a professor at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology.
“If it is an El Niño year, it will have a big impact on the ozone concentration.”
The researchers, from mainland China, Hong Kong and the United States, used model simulations, ground measurements and reanalysis data to look at the impact of ENSO on the year-to-year variations of near-surface ozone concentrations in China in the summer from 1990 to 2019.