Low particulate nitrate in the residual layer in autumn over the North China Plain

Vertical changes of PM2.5 driven by meteorology in the atmospheric boundary layer during a heavy air pollution event in central China

Regional PM_2.5 transport is a crucial factor affecting air quality, and the meteorological mechanism in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) has not been fully understood over the receptor region in the regional transport of air pollutants. Based on the intensive vertical measurements of air pollutants and meteorology in the ABL during a transport-induced heavy air pollution event in Xiangyang, an urban site over a receptor region in central China, we investigated the meteorological mechanism in vertical PM_2.5 changes in the ABL for heavy air pollution over the receptor region. Driven by northerly winds, regional PM_2.5 transport was built from upstream northern China to downstream central China, where the observed ABL structures were unstable throughout the air pollution event. We assessed the ABL structures with meteorological and PM_2.5 profiles at growth, maintenance, and dissipation stages, and elucidated the mechanism of regional PM_2.5 transport inducing air pollution over the receptor region with the contribution of thermal and mechanical factors. The regional PM_2.5 transport was concentrated in the upper ABL over the downwind receptor region with high PM_2.5 concentrations at altitudes of 600-800 m, where the transported PM_2.5 peaks were downwards mixed by vertical wind shear, forming the vertical PM_2.5 transport from the upper ABL to near-surface in the growth stage; the weakened winds and less unstable structures in the ABL favored the sustained pollution with slight vertical PM_2.5 changes in the maintenance stage, which was dominated by thermal factors with 87 % contribution; the removal of PM_2.5 was triggered by increasing winds from the upper ABL, activating the dissipation of heavy PM_2.5 pollution with the mechanical effect accounting for 60 % in the dissipation stage. These findings could improve our understanding of ABL's influence on air pollution over the receptor region with implications for the regional transport of air pollutants in environmental changes.

Progress in quantitative research on the relationship between atmospheric oxidation and air quality

Atmospheric oxidizing capacity (AOC) is an essential driving force of troposphere chemistry and self-cleaning, but the definition of AOC and its quantitative representation remain uncertain. Driven by national demand for air pollution control in recent years, Chinese scholars have carried out studies on theories of atmospheric chemistry and have made considerable progress in AOC research. This paper will give a brief review of these developments. First, AOC indexes were established that represent apparent atmospheric oxidizing ability (AOIe) and potential atmospheric oxidizing ability (AOIp) based on aspects of macrothermodynamics and microdynamics, respectively. A closed study refined the quantitative contributions of heterogeneous chemistry to AOC in Beijing, and these AOC methods were further applied in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and key areas across the country. In addition, the detection of ground or vertical profiles for atmospheric OH·, HO₂·, NO₃· radicals and reservoir molecules can now be obtained with domestic instruments in diverse environments. Moreover, laboratory smoke chamber simulations revealed heterogeneous processes involving reactions of O₃ and NO₂, which are typical oxidants in the surface/interface atmosphere, and the evolutionary and budgetary implications of atmospheric oxidants reacting under multispecies, multiphase and multi-interface conditions were obtained. Finally, based on the GRAPES-CUACE adjoint model improved by Chinese scholars, simulations of key substances affecting atmospheric oxidation and secondary organic and inorganic aerosol formation have been optimized. Normalized numerical simulations of AOIe and AOIp were performed, and regional coordination of AOC was adjusted. An optimized plan for controlling O₃ and PM_2.5 was analyzed by scenario simulation.

Formation mechanism and control strategy for particulate nitrate in China

Over the past decade, fine particulate matter (PM) pollution in China has been abated significantly, benefiting from strict emission control measures, but particulate nitrate continues to rise. Here, we review the progress in particulate nitrate (pNO₃^-) pollution characterization, nitrate formation mechanisms, and the proposed control strategies in China. The spatial and temporal distributions of pNO₃^- are summarized. The current status of knowledge on the chemical mechanism is updated, and the significance of its formation pathways is assessed by various approaches such as field observation and modelling of nitrate production rate, as well as isotopic analysis. The factors impacting pNO₃^- formation and the corresponding pollution regulation strategies are discussed, in which the importance of atmospheric oxidation capacity and ammonia are addressed. Finally, the challenges and open questions in pNO₃^- pollution control in China are outlined.

Modeling particulate nitrate in China: Current findings and future directions

Particulate nitrate (pNO3) is now becoming the principal component of PM2.5 during severe winter haze episodes in many cities of China. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the key factors controlling pNO3 formation and driving its trends, we reviewed the recent pNO3 modeling studies which mainly focused on the formation mechanism and recent trends of pNO3 as well as its responses to emission controls in China. The results indicate that although recent chemical transport models (CTMs) can reasonably capture the spatial-temporal variations of pNO3, model-observation biases still exist due to large uncertainties in the parameterization of dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5) uptake and ammonia (NH3) emissions, insufficient heterogeneous reaction mechanism, and the predicted low sulfate concentrations in current CTMs. The heterogeneous hydrolysis of N2O5 dominates nocturnal pNO3 formation, however, the contribution to total pNO3 varies among studies, ranging from 21.0% to 51.6%. Moreover, the continuously increasing PM2.5 pNO3 fraction in recent years is mainly due to the decreased sulfur dioxide emissions, the enhanced atmospheric oxidation capacity (AOC), and the weakened nitrate deposition. Reducing NH3 emissions is found to be the most effective control strategy for mitigating pNO3 pollution in China. This review suggests that more field measurements are needed to constrain the parameterization of heterogeneous N2O5 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) uptake. Future studies are also needed to quantify the relationships of pNO3 to AOC, O3, NOx, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in different regions of China under different meteorological conditions. Research on multiple-pollutant control strategies involving NH3, NOX, and VOCs is required to mitigate pNO3 pollution, especially during severe winter haze events.

High gaseous carbonyl concentrations in the upper boundary layer in Shijiazhuang, China

Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) are important precursors of secondary air pollutants. However, knowledge of the vertical characteristics of OVOCs in the lower troposphere is lacking. Pairs of OVOCs samples were simultaneously collected via 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (DNPH) near the ground and in the upper boundary layer (at 500 m in winter and 600 m in summer) with a tethered balloon in Shijiazhuang in January and June 2019. The samples were analyzed via high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and 26 vertical profiles of 13 OVOCs were obtained in this study. In winter, the average concentrations of the total OVOCs (TOVOCs) in the upper boundary layer and near the ground were 7.9 ± 4.1 ppbv and 5.5 ± 2.8 ppbv, respectively; while in summer, the average concentrations were 7.1 ± 3.5 ppbv and 6.5 ± 2.7 ppbv, respectively. Acetone, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were the three main components accounting for more than 80% of the TOVOCs. Significant vertical differences were observed before sunrise in winter and in the afternoon in summer. The TOVOCs concentration in the residual layer (8.4 ± 3.6 ppbv) was higher than that near the ground (6.0 ± 2.5 ppbv), while in the summer afternoon, the concentration in the upper mixing layer (ML) (9.5 ± 2.2 ppbv) was higher than that near the ground (5.8 ± 3.1 ppbv). OVOCs sources were examined with a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model. In winter, the small-molecule carbonyls (SMCs) in the upper boundary layer are mainly derived from secondary + long-lived species (68.4%) because volatile organic compounds at high concentrations were oxidized into OVOCs. In summer, the SMCs in the upper ML were mainly affected by elevated industrial point source emissions (42.9%). These data indicate that vertical gradient observations of SMCs are an important supplement to advance current air pollution research.

Variations in Nocturnal Residual Layer Height and Its Effects on Surface PM2.5 over Wuhan, China

Large amounts of aerosols remain in the residual layer (RL) after sunset, which may be the source of the next day’s pollutants. However, the characteristics of the nocturnal residual layer height (RLH) and its effect on urban environment pollution are unknown. In this study, the characteristics of the RLH and its effect on fine particles with diameters <2.5 μm (PM2.5) were investigated using lidar data from January 2017 to December 2019. The results show that the RLH is highest in summer (1.55 ± 0.55 km), followed by spring (1.40 ± 0.58 km) and autumn (1.26 ± 0.47 km), and is lowest in winter (1.11 ± 0.44 km). The effect of surface meteorological factors on the RLH were also studied. The correlation coefficients (R) between the RLH and the temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and pressure were 0.38, −0.18, 0.15, and −0.36, respectively. The results indicate that the surface meteorological parameters exhibit a slight correlation with the RLH, but the high relative humidity was accompanied by a low RLH and high PM2.5 concentrations. Finally, the influence of the RLH on PM2.5 was discussed under different aerosol-loading periods. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) was employed to represent the total amount of pollutants. The results show that the RLH has an effect on PM2.5 when the AOD is small but has almost no effect on PM2.5 when the AOD is high. In addition, the R between the nighttime mean RLH and the following daytime PM2.5 at low AOD is −0.49, suggesting that the RLH may affect the following daytime surface PM2.5. The results of this study have a guiding significance for understanding the interaction between aerosols and the boundary layer.

Characteristics of boundary layer ozone and its effect on surface ozone concentration in Shenzhen, China: A case study

In late September 2019, the longest and most extensive ozone (O₃) pollution process occurred at Pearl River Delta. Base on the observational data, surface-level O₃, vertical distribution characteristics boundary layer O₃ as well as its effect on surface-level O₃ are thoroughly analyzed. The O₃ lidar results showed similar vertical O₃ profiles both in pollution episodes and clean periods, from which a high O₃ concentration layer between 300 and 500 m and a sub-high O₃ concentration layer between 1300 and 1700 m (near the top of the mixing layer) can be found. Besides, the downward O₃ transport paths from the high/sub-high O₃ concentration layers could be observed along with the boundary layer evolution: At nighttime, large amounts of O₃ were effectively stored into the residual layer (RL). Due to the upward development of Mixing layer (ML) in early morning, atmospheric vertical mixing carried the O₃ inside the RL down to the surface, which led to a rapid increase in the surface-level O₃. The sub-high O₃ layer began the downward mixing at noon, and became well-mixed after the boundary layer was fully developed in the afternoon, by which the near surface O₃ pollution deteriorated again. Further analysis of the heavy O₃ pollution episodes show that, the high O₃ concentration inside the RL contributed 54% ± 6% of the surface-level O₃ at 9:00 LT and the average contribution of O₃ in the sub-high concentration layer to the surface-level O₃ at 14:00 LT was 26% ± 9%. Based on the quantitative analysis of the observational data, this paper focus to reveal the importance of the contribution of O₃ inside the RL and near the top of the ML to the surface O₃.

Aggravated ozone pollution in the strong free convection boundary layer

Clarifying the relationship between meteorological factors and ozone can provide scientific support for ozone pollution prediction, but the effects of boundary layer meteorology, especially boundary layer height and turbulence, on ozone pollution are rarely studied. Here, ozone and its related meteorological factors were observed in summer in Shijiazhuang, a city with the most serious ozone pollution on the North China Plain. The forced and free convection boundary layers were classified using ground remote observations. After eliminating the forced convection condition, strong free convection conditions, exhibiting a high boundary layer height, high wind speed, strong turbulence and large-scale free convection velocity, were found to be beneficial for the aggravation of ozone pollution. Combined with the ozone profile detected by a tethered balloon, the ozone chemical budget was calculated using the differences in the column ozone concentrations between the morning and afternoon, and the results confirmed the impact of free convection intensity on ozone pollution. The change in ozone sensitivity from VOCs sensitivity to NOx sensitivity driven by strong free convection was the main reason for the deterioration of ozone pollution. This study clarified the impact of boundary layer meteorology on ozone and its sensitivity and has important practical significance for ozone pollution prevention and early warning.