Characteristics and sources of PM2.5 with focus on two severe pollution events in a coastal city of Qingdao, China

Distributions of PAHs, NPAHs, OPAHs, BrPAHs, and ClPAHs in air, bulk deposition, soil, and water in the Shandong Peninsula, China: Urban-rural gradient, interface exchange, and long-range transport

A systematic study of the movement of PAHs (Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) and their derivatives through air, soil, and water is key to understanding the exchange and transport mechanisms of these pollutants in the environment and for ultimately improving environmental quality. PAHs and their derivatives, such as nitrated PAHs (NPAHs), oxygenated PAHs (OPAHs), brominated PAHs (BrPAHs) and chlorinated PAHs (ClPAHs), were analyzed in air, bulk deposition, soil, and water samples collected from urban, rural, field, and background sites on the eastern coast of China. The goal was to investigate and discuss their spatiotemporal variations, exchange fluxes, and transport potential. The concentrations of PAHs and their derivatives in the air and bulk deposition displayed distinct seasonal patterns, with higher concentrations observed during the winter and spring and lower concentrations during the summer and autumn. NPAHs exhibited the opposite trend. Significant urban-rural gradients were observed for most of the PAHs and their derivatives. According to the air-soil fugacity calculations, 2-3 ring PAHs, BrPAHs, and ClPAHs were found to volatilize from the soil into the air, while 4-7 ring PAHs, OPAHs, and NPAHs deposited from the air into the soil. The air-water fugacity of the PAHs and their derivatives indicated that surface water was an important source for the ambient atmosphere in Qingdao. The characteristic travel distances (CTDs) and persistence (Pov) for atmospheric transport were much lower than that for the water samples, which may be due to the longer half-lives of PAHs and their derivatives in water. NPAHs and ClPAHs with long transport distances and strong persistence in water could lead to a significant impact on marine pollution.

Role of vertical advection and diffusion in long-range PM2.5 transport in Northeast Asia

This study quantitatively analyzed the role of vertical mixing in long-range transport (LRT) of PM_2.5 during its high concentration episode in Northeast Asia toward the end of February 2014. The PM_2.5 transport process from an upwind to downwind area was examined using the Community Multi-scale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system with its instrumented tool and certain code modifications. We identified serial distinctive roles of vertical advection (ZADV) and diffusion (VDIF) processes. The surface PM_2.5 in an upwind area became aloft by VDIF- during daytime-to the planetary boundary layer (PBL) altitude of 1 km or lower. In contrast, ZADV updraft effectively transported PM_2.5 vertically to an altitude of 2-3 km above the PBL. Furthermore, we found that the VDIF and ZADV in the upwind area synergistically promoted the vertical mixing of air pollutants up to an altitude of 1 km and higher. The aloft PM_2.5 in the upwind area was then transported to the downwind area by horizontal advection (HADV), which was faster than HADV at the surface layer. Additionally, VDIF and ZADV over the downwind area mixed down the aloft PM_2.5 on the surface. During this period, the VDIF and ZADV increased the PM_2.5 concentrations in the downwind area by up to 15 μg·m^-3 (15%) and 101 μg·m^-3 (60%), respectively. This study highlights the importance of vertical mixing on long-range PM_2.5 transport and warrants more in-depth model analysis with three-dimensional observations to enhance its comprehensive understanding.

Impact of the ‘Coal-to-Natural Gas’ Policy on Criteria Air Pollutants in Northern China

During the last decades, China had issued a series of stringent control measures, resulting in a large decline in air pollutant concentrations. To quantify the net change in air pollutant concentrations driven by emissions, we developed an approach of determining the closed interval of the deweathered percentage change (DPC) in the concentration of air pollutants on an annual scale, as well as the closed intervals of cumulative DPC in a year compared with that in the base year. Thus, the hourly mean mass concentrations of criteria air pollutants to determine their interannual variations and the closed intervals of their DPCs during the heating seasons from 2013 to 2019 in Qingdao (a coastal megacity) were analyzed. The seasonal mean SO2 concentration decreased from 2013 to 2019. The seasonal mean CO, NO2, and PM2.5 concentrations also generally decreased from 2013 to 2017, but increased unexpectedly in 2018 (from 0.9 mg m−3 (CO), 42 µg m−3 (NO2), and 51 µg m−3 (PM2.5) in 2017 to 1.1 mg m−3, 48 µg m−3, and 64 µg m−3 in 2018, respectively). The closed intervals of DPC in concentrations of CO, NO2, and PM2.5 from the 2017 heating season (2017/2018) to the 2018 heating season (2018/2019) were obtained at (27%, 30%), (15%, 18%), and (30%, 33%), respectively. Such high positive endpoint values of the closed intervals, in contrast to their small interval lengths, indicate increased emissions of these pollutants and/or their precursors in 2018/2019 compared with 2017/2018, by minimizing the meteorological influences. The rebounds of CO, NO2, and PM2.5 in 2018/2019 were likely associated with a doubled increase in natural gas (NG) consumption implemented by the “coal-to-NG” project, as the total energy consumption showed little difference. Our results suggested an important role of the “coal-to-NG” project in driving concentrations of air pollutant increases in China in 2018/2019, which need integrated assessments.

Nonlinear effect of air pollution on adult pneumonia hospital visits in the coastal city of Qingdao, China: A time-series analysis

Many studies have illustrated adverse effects of short-term exposure to air pollution on human health, which usually assumes a linear exposure-response (E-R) function in the delineation of health effects due to air pollution. However, nonlinearity may exist in the association between air pollutant concentrations and health outcomes such as adult pneumonia hospital visits, and there is a research gap in understanding the nonlinearity. Here, we utilized both the distributed lag model (DLM) and nonlinear model (DLNM) to compare the linear and nonlinear impacts of air pollution on adult pneumonia hospital visits in the coastal city of Qingdao, China. While both models show adverse effects of air pollutants on adult pneumonia hospital visits, the DLNM shows an attenuation of E-R curves at high concentrations. Moreover, the DLNM may reveal delayed health effects that may be missed in the DLM, e.g., ozone exposure and pneumonia hospital visits. With the stratified analysis of air pollutants on adult pneumonia hospital visits, both models consistently reveal that the influence of air pollutants is higher during the cold season than during the warm season. Nevertheless, they may behave differently in terms of other subgroups, such as age, gender and visit types. For instance, while no significant impact due to PM_2.5 in any of the subgroups abovementioned emerges based on DLM, the results from DLNM indicate statistically significant impacts for the subgroups of elderly, female and emergency department (ED) visits. With respect to adjustment by two-pollutants, PM₁₀ effect estimates for pneumonia hospital visits were the most robust in both DLM and DLNM, followed by NO₂ and SO₂ based on the DLNM. Considering the estimated health effects of air pollution relying on the assumed E-R functions, our results demonstrate that the traditional linear association assumptions may overlook some potential health risks.

Cross-boundary transport and source apportionment for PM2.5 in a typical industrial city in the Hebei Province, China: A modeling study

Cross-boundary transport of air pollution is a difficult issue in pollution control for the North China Plain. In this study, an industrial district (Shahe City) with a large glass manufacturing sector was investigated to clarify the relative contribution of fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) to the city's high levels of pollution. The Nest Air Quality Prediction Model System (NAQPMS), paired with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF), was adopted and applied with a spatial resolution of 5 km. During the study period, the mean mass concentrations of PM_2.5, SO₂, and NO₂ were observed to be 132.0, 76.1, and 55.5 μg/m³, respectively. The model reproduced the variations in pollutant concentrations in Shahe at an acceptable level. The simulation of online source-tagging revealed that pollutants emitted within a 50-km radius of downtown Shahe contributed 63.4% of the city's total PM_2.5 concentration. This contribution increased to 73.9±21.2% when unfavorable meteorological conditions (high relative humidity, weak wind, and low planetary boundary layer height) were present; such conditions are more frequently associated with severe pollution (PM_2.5 ≥ 250 μg/m³). The contribution from Shahe was 52.3±21.6%. The source apportionment results showed that industry (47%), transportation (10%), power (17%), and residential (26%) sectors were the most important sources of PM_2.5 in Shahe. The glass factories (where chimney stack heights were normally < 70 m) in Shahe contributed 32.1% of the total PM_2.5 concentration in Shahe. With an increase in PM_2.5 concentration, the emissions from glass factories accumulated vertically and narrowed horizontally. At times when pollution levels were severe, the horizontally influenced area mainly covered Shahe. Furthermore, sensitivity tests indicated that reducing emissions by 20%, 40%, and 60% could lead to a decrease in the mass concentration of PM_2.5 of of 12.0%, 23.8%, and 35.5%, respectively.

Unveiling the dipole synergic effect of biogenic and anthropogenic emissions on ozone concentrations

Biogenic emissions are widely known as important precursors of ozone, yet there is potentially a strong interaction and synergy between biogenic and anthropogenic emissions, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), in modulating ozone formation. To a large extent, the synergy affects the effectiveness of anthropogenic emission control, thereby reshaping the O₃-NOx-VOC empirical kinetic modeling approach (EKMA) diagram. Focusing on the ozone pollution period of June 2017 in the North China Plain, we design almost 500 numerical experiments using regional air quality model Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) that revealed an interesting synergic effect, defined as the contribution of biogenic emissions to ozone concentrations concomitant with a reduction in anthropogenic emissions. A quasi-EKMA diagram is constructed to delineate the contribution of biogenic emissions to ozone concentrations, indicative of a linearly amplified or nonlinearly weakened result associated with reductions in anthropogenic VOCs or NOx emissions, respectively, illustrating the dipole characteristics of the synergic effect. The reduced ozone contribution from biogenic emissions along with NOx emission reduction can be used to represent controllable biogenically induced ozone (BIO). Both the amplified and controllable BIO are tightly linked to both local emissions and regional transport, implicative of an essential role in joint regional emission control. In regard to ozone exceedance, the role of biogenic emissions may be even more important, in that its contribution is comparable to or even larger than that of anthropogenic emissions when associated with a reduction in anthropogenic emissions, which is clearly demonstrated based on the near carbon neutrality scenario shared socioeconomic pathway (SSP) 126. Meanwhile, the biogenic emissions may steer the modulation of anthropogenic emissions in the change rate of MDA8 ozone concentration. Therefore, the synergic effect of biogenic and anthropogenic emissions elucidated in this study should be carefully considered in future ozone pollution control.

Impacts of biogenic emissions from urban landscapes on summer ozone and secondary organic aerosol formation in megacities

The impact of biogenic emissions on ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) has been widely acknowledged; nevertheless, biogenic emissions emitted from urban landscapes have been largely ignored. We find that including urban isoprene in megacities like Beijing improves not only the modeled isoprene concentrations but also its diurnal cycle. Specifically, the mean bias of the simulated isoprene concentrations is reduced from 87% to 39% by adding urban isoprene emissions while keeping the diurnal cycle the same as that in non-urban or rural areas. Further adjusting the diurnal cycle of isoprene emissions to the urban profile steers the original early morning peak of the isoprene concentration to a double quasi-peak, i.e., bell shape, consistent with observations. The efficiency of ozone generation caused by isoprene emissions in urban Beijing is found to be twice as large as those in rural areas, indicative of vital roles of urban BVOC emissions in modulating the ozone formation. Our study also shows that in the future along with NOx emission reduction, isoprene emissions from urban landscapes will become more important for the formation of ozone in urban area, and their contributions may exceed that of isoprene caused by transport from rural areas. Finally, the impact of biogenic emissions on SOA is examined, revealing that biogenic induced SOA accounts for 16% of the total SOA in urban Beijing. The effect of isoprene on SOA (iSOA) is modulated through two pathways associated with the abundance of NOx emissions, and the effect can be amplified in future when NOx emissions are reduced. The findings of our study are not limited to Beijing but also apply to other megacities or densely populated regions, suggesting an urgent need to construct an accurate emission inventory for urban landscapes and evaluate their impact on ozone and SOA in air quality planning and management.

Development and Assessment of a High-Resolution Biogenic Emission Inventory from Urban Green Spaces in China

Biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions have long been known to play vital roles in modulating the formation of ozone and secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). While early studies have evaluated their impact globally or regionally, the BVOC emissions emitted from urban green spaces (denoted as U-BVOC emissions) have been largely ignored primarily due to the failure of low-resolution land cover in resolving such processes, but also because their important contribution to urban BVOCs was previously unrecognized. In this study, by utilizing a recently released high-resolution land cover dataset, we develop the first set of emission inventories of U-BVOCs in China at spatial resolutions as high as 1 km. This new dataset resolved densely distributed U-BVOCs in urban core areas. The U-BVOC emissions in megacities could account for a large fraction of total BVOC emissions, and the good agreement of the interannual variations between the U-BVOC emissions and ozone concentrations over certain regions stresses their potentially crucial role in influencing ozone variations. The newly constructed U-BVOC emission inventory is expected to provide an improved dataset to enable the research community to re-examine the modulation of BVOCs on the formation of ozone, SOA, and atmospheric chemistry in urban environments.

Distribution of bacterial concentration and viability in atmospheric aerosols under various weather conditions in the coastal region of China

Airborne bacteria have an important role in atmospheric processes and human health. However, there is still little information on the transmission and distribution of bacteria via the airborne route. To characterize the impact of foggy, haze, haze-fog (HF) and dust days on the concentration and viability of bacteria in atmospheric aerosols, size-segregated bioaerosol samples were collected in the Qingdao coastal region from March 2018 to February 2019. The total airborne microbes and viable/non-viable bacteria in the bioaerosol samples were measured using an epifluorescence microscope after staining with DAPI (4', 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) and a LIVE/DEAD® BacLight Bacterial Viability Kit. The average concentrations of total airborne microbes on haze and dust days were 6.75 × 10⁵ and 1.03 × 10⁶ cells/m³, respectively, which increased by a factor of 1.3 and 2.5 (on average), respectively, relative to those on sunny days. The concentrations of non-viable bacteria on haze and dust days increased by a factor of 1.2 and 3.6 (on average), respectively, relative to those on sunny days. In contrast, the concentrations of viable bacteria on foggy and HF days were 7.13 × 10³ and 5.74 × 10³ cells/m³, decreases of 38% and 50%, respectively, compared with those on sunny days. Foggy, haze, dust and HF days had a significant effect on the trend of the seasonal variation in the total airborne microbes and non-viable bacteria. Bacterial viability was 20.8% on sunny days and significantly higher than the 14.1% on foggy days, 11.2% on haze days, 8.6% during the HF phenomenon and 6.1% on dust days, indicating that special weather is harmful to some bacterial species. Correlation analysis showed that the factors that influenced the bacterial concentration and viability depended on different weather conditions. The main influential factors were temperature, NO₂ and SO₂ concentrations on haze days, and temperature, particulate matter (PM_2.5) and NO₂ concentrations on foggy days. The median size of particles containing viable bacteria was 1.94 μm on sunny days and decreased to 1.88 μm and 1.74 μm on foggy and haze days, respectively, but increased to 2.18 μm and 2.37 μm on dust and HF days, respectively.

Optimal estimation of initial concentrations and emission sources with 4D-Var for air pollution prediction in a 2D transport model

Attributing sources of air pollution events by deploying an efficient observational network is an important and interesting problem in air quality control and forecast studies, but it is very challenging. In order to estimate the sensitivities of pollution events to emission sources, a comprehensive framework is built based on a horizontal 2-dimensional transport model and its adjoint in solving this problem. In an analysis of an idealized air pollution event of PM_2.5 over the region of North China, an objective function is defined to optimally estimate the initial concentrations and emission sources through a series of minimization procedures. Results by means of the 4-dimensional variational approach show that, with the optimal initial conditions and emission sources, the model can successfully forecast the pollution event in a few days. The optimal observing network based on sensitivity analysis takes only one third of the cost but greatly retains predictability skill compared to the full-grid observing system, while nearly no predictability skill is detectable if the same number of observational sites is randomly deployed. We evaluate air pollution predictability in the point of focusing on to what degree the root mean square errors between the modeled concentration and the targeted air pollution are limited by the optimal observational network. Results show that air pollution predictability in association with the optimal observational network is limited in the time scales about 6 days. With the high efficiency and in an economic fashion, such a sensitivity-based optimal observing system holds promise for accurately predicting an air pollution event in the targeted area once the adjoint and variational procedure of a realistic atmosphere model including transport and chemical processes is performed.

Revealing the modulation of boundary conditions and governing processes on ozone formation over northern China in June 2017

In this study, ozonesonde data were used to evaluate the impact of different boundary conditions on the vertical distribution of ozone over urban Beijing. The comparison shows that the clean and static boundary conditions, referred to as PROFILE, apparently underestimate the ozone concentration over the upper troposphere and stratosphere, whereas the global chemical transport model (CTM) provides much more reasonable performance. Further investigation reveals that the boundary conditions exert larger impacts over areas with high altitudes and close distances to boundaries, such as the Tibetan Plateau, while they yield weak impacts on regions relatively far from the boundary, such as the North China Plain (NCP). Process analysis was conducted to investigate the modulation of physical and chemical processes on ozone formation in June 2017, illustrating that during the daytime of the high-O₃ period, the photochemical reactions within the planetary boundary layer (PBL) almost become the only source favorable to ozone accumulation. Motivated by this phenomenon, we constructed a linear regression and found that the maximum daily 8-hr ozone (MDA8) ozone concentration was highly correlated with the surface ozone change rate and chemical reactions in the PBL during the pollution period, with MDA8 ozone exceeding 70 ppbv over NCP. Based on this relationship as well as the design of numerical experiments, we propose a strategy of dynamic emission control. Firstly, the emission reduction during the peak ozone formation period may weaken the fast chemical reactions in the PBL and subsequent surface ozone concentration. Secondly, emission reduction one or two days prior to an episode might achieve larger ozone reduction through the accumulation effect. Lastly, emission control outside of the NCP may surpass the local impact under favorable meteorological conditions. Therefore, the efficacy of dynamic emission control was striking when both the accumulation and transport effect were taken into consideration.

Variation Characteristics and Transportation of Aerosol, NO2, SO2, and HCHO in Coastal Cities of Eastern China: Dalian, Qingdao, and Shanghai

This paper studied the method for converting the aerosol extinction to the mass concentration of particulate matter (PM) and obtained the spatio-temporal distribution and transportation of aerosol, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and formaldehyde (HCHO) based on multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) observations in Dalian (38.85°N, 121.36°E), Qingdao (36.35°N, 120.69°E), and Shanghai (31.60°N, 121.80°E) from 2019 to 2020. The PM2.5 measured by the in situ instrument and the PM2.5 simulated by the conversion formula showed a good correlation. The correlation coefficients R were 0.93 (Dalian), 0.90 (Qingdao), and 0.88 (Shanghai). A regular seasonality of the three trace gases is found, but not for aerosols. Considerable amplitudes in the weekly cycles were determined for NO2 and aerosols, but not for SO2 and HCHO. The aerosol profiles were nearly Gaussian, and the shapes of the trace gas profiles were nearly exponential, except for SO2 in Shanghai and HCHO in Qingdao. PM2.5 presented the largest transport flux, followed by NO2 and SO2. The main transport flux was the output flux from inland to sea in spring and winter. The MAX-DOAS and the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) models’ results were compared. The overestimation of NO2 and SO2 by CAMS is due to its overestimation of near-surface gas volume mixing ratios.

The climate impact on atmospheric stagnation and capability of stagnation indices in elucidating the haze events over North China Plain and Northeast China

In this study, the spatial pattern and temporal evolution of PM_2.5 over North China Plain (NCP) and Northeast China (NEC) during 2014-2018 was investigated. The annual mean PM_2.5 shows clear decreasing trends over time, but the seasonal mean PM_2.5 as well as the seasonal total duration and frequency of haze days shows large inter-annual fluctuation. Based on the atmospheric stagnation index (ASI), this study examined the correlation between ASI and haze events over NCP and NEC. Detailed analysis indicates that location dependency exists of ASI in the capability of capturing the haze events, and the ability is limited in NCP. Therefore, we first propose two alternative methods in defining the ASI to either account for the lag effect or enlarge the threshold value of wind speed at 500 hPa. The new methods can improve the ability of ASI to explain the haze events over NEC, though marginal improvement was achieved in NCP. Furthermore, this study constructed the equation based on the boundary layer height and wind speed at 10-meter, apparently improving the ability in haze capture rate (HCR), a ratio of haze days during the stagnation to the total haze days. Based on a multi-model ensemble analyses under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5, we found that by the end of this century, climate change may lead to increases in both the duration and frequency of wintertime stagnation events over NCP. In contrast, the models predict a decrease in stagnant events and the total duration of stagnation in winter over NEC.

Secondary aerosol formation and its linkage with synoptic conditions during winter haze pollution over eastern China

Eastern China has been facing severe winter haze pollution due mainly to secondary aerosol. Existing studies have suggested that stagnant weather or fast chemical production led to frequent haze in this region. However, few works focus on the linkage between secondary production of sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium (SNA) and synoptic conditions, and their joint contribution to PM_2.5. In this study, by combining in-situ measurements on meteorology and aerosol chemical composition at three main cities together with a regional model with improved diagnose scheme, we investigated the chemical formation and accumulation of main secondary composition, i.e. SNA under typical synoptic conditions. It is indicated that SNA did play a vital role in haze pollution across eastern China, contributing more than 40% to PM_2.5 mass concentration. As most fast developing region, the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) was slightly polluted during stable weather with local chemical production accounting for 61% SNA pollution. While under the influence of cold front, the pollution was aggravated and advection transport became the predominant contributive process (85%). Nevertheless, the chemical production of SNA was notably enhanced due to the uplift of air pollutant and elevated humidity ahead of the cold front, which then facilitated the heterogeneous and aqueous-phase oxidation of precursors. We also found the substantial difference in the phase equilibrium of nitrate over the land surface and ocean due to changes in temperature, ammonia availability and dry deposition. This study highlights the close link between synoptic weather and chemical production, and the resultant vertical and spatial heterogeneity of pollution.