Air-chemistry "turbulence": Power-law scaling and statistical regularity

With the intent to gain further knowledge on the spectral structures and statistical regularities of surface atmospheric chemistry, the chemical gases (NO, NO₂, NOx, CO, SO₂, and O₃) and aerosol (PM₀₁) measured at 74 air quality monitoring stations over the island of Taiwan are analyzed for the year of 2004 at hourly resolution. They represent a range of surface air quality with a mixed combination of geographic settings, and include urban/rural, coastal/inland, plain/hill, and industrial/agricultural locations.

In addition to the well-known semi-diurnal and diurnal oscillations, weekly, and intermediate (20 ~ 30 days) peaks are also identified with the continuous wavelet transform (CWT). The spectra indicate power-law scaling regions for the frequencies higher than the diurnal and those lower than the diurnal with the average exponents of -5/3 and -1, respectively. These dual-exponents are corroborated with those with the detrended fluctuation analysis in the corresponding time-lag regions.