Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-020-00724-7 ORIGINAL PAPER The efects of synoptic and local meteorological condition on CO 2 , CH 4 , PM 10 and PM 2.5 at Bachok Marine Research Station (BMRS) in Peninsular Malaysia Noraini Mohyeddin 1  · Azizan Abu Samah 1,2  · Sheeba Nettukandy Chenoli 1,2  · Matthew J. Ashfold 3  · Mohammed Iqbal Mead 4  · David Oram 5  · Mohd Talib Latif 6  · Sivaprasad P. 2  · Mohd Fadzil Firdzaus Mohd Nor 1 Received: 26 April 2019 / Accepted: 4 January 2020 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Austria, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract This study is focused on Bachok Marine Research Station (BMRS) which is exposed to diferent scales of meteorological condition during the northeast (NE) and southwest (SW) monsoons. BMRS experiences both synoptic and land–sea breeze events during the NE monsoon, but only the land–sea breezes are dominant during the SW monsoon. Two case studies were investigated in which the frst case study (CS1) was conducted from 25 to 27 January 2016 while the second one (CS2) from 3 to 5 June 2016. BMRS experienced strong synoptic efect during CS1 with strong northeasterly winds (wind speed > 10 ms −1 ) up to an altitude of 2500 m and vertical thermal gradient only up to 600 m. Using Concentrated Weighted Trajectory (CWT) analysis, BMRS was shown to be infuenced by the regional sources of pollutants originated from the central region of China and areas along coastal Vietnam during CS1. Meanwhile, CS2 was associated with daily land–sea breeze event, strong diurnal efect and closely linked to the local source of pollutants from areas along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The concentrations of PM 10 and PM 2.5 were two times higher when ofshore winds dominated BMRS, suggesting its great relation to the local emissions. Overall, BMRS presents a valuable opportunity to study the infuence of regional and local atmospheric fows to the variabilities of air pollutants, thus enabling better understanding and providing a key reference to formulate efective pollution abatement strategies. 1 Introduction Southeast Asia (SEA) is a fast emerging region with a rap- idly growing economy (OECD 2019) and future energy demand and rapid industrialization are expected to increase the emissions of anthropogenic aerosols from this region if not properly managed (Masson-Delmotte et al. 2018; Page et al. 2011). Air pollutants can be transported across con- tinents and ocean basins due to fast long-range transport, resulting for example in trans-oceanic and trans-continental plumes of atmospheric brown clouds (ABCs) containing atmospheric aerosols (Ramanathan and Feng 2009) such as soot and dust. Greenhouse gases such as CO 2 and CH 4 are among the most concerning and continuously monitored air pollutants due to their contribution to global warming (IPCC 2014). Additionally, atmospheric aerosols have also become a great concern in Southeast Asia as a result of biomass burnings, trafc and industrial emissions (Dominick et al. 2015). Atmospheric aerosols arising from biomass burning are usually comprised of high amounts of organic pollut- ants and are able to move far from their sources due to their Responsible Editor: M. Telisman Prtenjak. * Sheeba Nettukandy Chenoli sheeba@um.edu.my 1 Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Institute of Postgraduate Studies, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2 Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3 School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia 4 Centre of Atmospheric Informatics and Emissions Technology, Cranfeld University, Cranfeld MK43 0AL, UK 5 National Centre for Atmospheric Science, School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK 6 Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, Faculty of Science and Technology, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia