Earth Sciences
Yele Sun
Yele Sun, born in Rizhao, Shandong in 1979, is a professor at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics. He received his PhD degree from Beijing Normal University in 2006, and did his postdoctoral research in State University of New York, University of California at Davis, and Colorado State University. He is now the associate director of the State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC).
Yele Sun’s research mainly focus on characterization of composition, sources, and formation mechanisms of atmospheric aerosols. He is also studying the interactions between boundary layer dynamics and air pollution in recent years. He is author and co-author of 130+ SCI papers, 10 of which are ESI highly cited papers. The total SCI citations are 7700+, and his H-index is 37. He was awarded to the "Thousand Young Talent Program", "Young Scientist Award of Chinese Academy of Sciences", and the second class of "National Natural Science Award" (ranked 4th)
Atmospheric Pollution in China: Sources, Formation Mechanisms, and Impacts
Prof. Yele Sun systematically studied the chemical composition, sources and formation mechanisms of atmospheric complex pollution in China, particularly in the megacity of Beijing. He elucidated the important roles of secondary aerosols (sulfate, nitrate and secondary organic aerosols), photochemical processing in summer and aqueous-phase processing in winter in the formation of severe air pollution. He also illustrated the roles of meteorological parameters, secondary aerosol formation, and regional transport in the rapid growth of haze pollution, and quantified the relative contributions of local emissions and regional transport to severe air pollution in Beijing. With this, he further proposed a conceptual framework model for describing the evolution of primary and secondary species. He also conducted extensive measurements to study the vertical structures of physical and chemical properties of urban boundary layer. The vertical distributions of aerosol composition and their interactions with meteorological parameters in the megacity of Beijing were characterized, and the vertical differences in sources and formation mechanisms of secondary aerosols were elucidated. The response of aerosol composition to different emission control scenarios and its impacts on urban air quality were also evaluated, which greatly supports the mitigating strategies for severe haze pollution in China.