The State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry (LAPC) was initiated in 1988 using the loan of “Key discipline Development Projects” from the World Bank. It was approved and established by Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1991. It passed the national assessments in 2000 and 2005. LAPC is affiliated with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Prof. Daren LV, an academician of CAS, is the chair of the scientific committee of LAPC. Prof. Jiang ZHU is currently the director of LAPC.

The mission of LAPC is to attract world-class scientific researchers, to improve the understanding of atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) physics, and to provide robust scientific knowledge and technical support for policy-making on air quality and climate change. Since its establishment, the research directions of LAPC have been following the new advances in atmospheric sciences and the new challenges the nation faces. The major research fields of LAPC are:
• Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics
The turbulent coherence structure and the mechanism of ABL gust over the complex urban surfaces; the ABL structure and energy exchange over complex land surfaces; the mass and energy exchanges over different land surfaces especially the semi-arid areas as well as the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas; the improvement of the ABL parameterization schemes in the meso-scale numerical simulation models.
• Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles
Impacts of anthropogenic activities and climate changes upon arid and semi-arid temperate steppes and alpine meadows in terms of carbon and nitrogen related processes; emissions of nitrogenous gases from non-point sources; biogeochemical processes that influence the land-air exchanges of carbon and nitrogen; biogenic volatile organic carbon (VOCs) emissions and the formation of secondary organic aerosols.
• Atmospheric Environment
Measurements of air pollutants; modeling of the formation, transport, and deposition of air pollutants; air quality forecasting and warning; photo-chemical experiments using smog chambers.
• Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate
Interactions between changing atmospheric components and climate on regional and global scales.

Since 1991, LAPC has been in charge of more than 200 research projects supported by National Program on Key Basic Research Project (973 Program), National High-tech R&D Program of China (863 Program), National Climb, National Key Technologies R & D Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, defense agencies, CAS, and international cooperation funding. The significant accomplishments achieved by LAPC can be demonstrated by numerous awards and recognitions, including one first-prize and one second-prize National Awards of Science and Technology Progress, one first-prize and four second-prize Awards of Nature Sciences of CAS, one first-prize and three third-prize Awards of Science and Technology Progress of CAS, one first-prize Awards of Science and Technology Progress of Ministry of Environmental Protection, five other ministry Awards, and five approved patents. LAPC has published over 1000 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and 21 academic books.

LAPC fully takes advantages of the inter-discipline between atmospheric physics and atmospheric chemistry. By combining theoretical analysis, measurements, and numerical modeling, LAPC contributes to our understanding of air pollution and climate change and increase policy makers’ awareness of the potential synergies and trade-offs that are imposed by the way the atmosphere and the climate system work. Facing the challenges in emissions, regional air pollution, and the diplomatic pressure on environmental and climate issues, scientists in LAPC have been focusing on scientific problems emerging with the rapid economic development in China.

Significant achievements have been made in the research projects on climate change. LAPC, as leading institute of the long-term study on methane emissions from rice paddies was awarded the national Tier II prize of scientific and technological progress in 2001.The research revealed that foreign scientists overestimated methane emissions from rice paddies of China, which was later accepted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and protected the rice production in China.

LAPC developed the first generation of air quality forecast system, which is now used by the State Environmental Protection Administration and China Meteorological Bureau in 47 cities. The model can predict sand storms and a lot of anthropogenic air pollutants. The laboratory plays the leading role in “The Joint Plan of Atmospheric Monitoring and Alerting for Beijing and Its Surrounding Regions” project co-sponsored by Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau. LAPC scientists participated and contributed significantly to the planning and monitoring of air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

For studying ABL with heterogeneous surfaces, structure and mechanism of atmospheric turbulence, and land-air exchanges of mass and energy, LAPC has built an observational network that includes Beijing 325m meteorology tower and numerous observation stations. The improved parameterization schemes based on the valuable measurements contributed largely to development of numerical models on different scales. 
 
The training of young scientists is one of the major tasks of LAPC. Since 1991 eight scientists were/are supported by CAS’s One-Hundred Talent Project, four scientists were awarded the Distinguished Young Scholars by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and four scientists served as the principal investigators of the 973 Projects. One scientist got the Award of Chinese Young Investigators, one PhD student was awarded Top 100 Best Doctoral Dissertations in China, and one scientist was awarded the CAS “10 Outstanding Youths”. Currently, LAPC has 47 regular research scientists and over 80 graduate students. 

Achievements