Interactions between Pollution Aerosols and Asian Winter Monsoon Strength and Their Connections with the Climate Variability

We present our study of decadal variations of aerosol pollution levels in East and South Asia and their interactions with the Asian winter monsoon strength through modeling and analysis of observations. We use the NASA global model GEOS AGCM that incorporates emissions from anthropogenic, biomass burning, and natural sources with aerosol-radiation-cloud coupling. The model results are compared to satellite observations from the high-resolution satellite retrievals from MODIS MAIAC from 2000 onward as well as available surface aerosol measurements. We examine the relationship between the Asian winter monsoon strength, surface aerosol concentrations, and their connections with the decadal variations of emissions and climate variability to understand the key factors influencing the surface air quality and winter monsoon strength.