Analysis of the air pollution reduction and climate change mitigation effects of the Three-Year Action Plan for Blue Skies on the "2+26" Cities in China.

City clusters play an important role in air pollutant and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction in China, primarily due to their high fossil energy consumption levels. The "2 + 26" Cities, i.e., Beijing, Tianjin and 26 other perfectures in northern China, has experienced serious air pollution in recent years. We employ the Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies model adapted to the "2 + 26" Cities (GAINS-JJJ) to evaluate the impacts of structural adjustments in four major sectors, industry, energy, transport and land use, under the Three-Year Action Plan for Blue Skies (Three-Year Action Plan) on the emissions of both the major air pollutants and CO2 in the "2 + 26" Cities. The results indicate that the Three-Year Action Plan applied in the "2 + 26" Cities reduces the total emissions of primary fine particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of ≤ 2.5 µm (PM2.5), SO2, NOx, NH3 and CO2 by 17%, 25%, 21%, 3% and 1%, respectively, from 2017 to 2020. The emission reduction potentials vary widely across the 28 prefectures, which may be attributed to the differences in energy structure, industrial composition, and policy enforcement rate. Among the four sectors, adjustment of industrial structure attains the highest co-benefits of CO2 reduction and air pollution control due to its high CO2 reduction potential, while structural adjustments in energy and transport attain much lower co-benefits, despite their relatively high air pollutant emissions reductions, primarily resulting from an increase in the coal-electric load and associated carbon emissions caused by electric reform policies..

Measurement of hydrogen peroxide and organic hydroperoxide concentrations during autumn in Beijing, China.

Gaseous peroxides play important roles in atmospheric chemistry. To understand the pathways of the formation and removal of peroxides, atmospheric peroxide concentrations and their controlling factors were measured from 7:00 to 20:00 in September, October, and November 2013 at a heavily trafficked residential site in Beijing, China, with average concentrations of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and methyl hydroperoxide (MHP) at 0.55ppb and 0.063ppb, respectively. H2O2 concentrations were higher in the afternoon and lower in the morning and evening, while MHP concentrations did not exhibit a regular diurnal pattern. Both H2O2 and MHP concentrations increased at dusk in most cases. Both peroxides displayed monthly variations with higher concentrations in September. These results suggested that photochemical activity was the main controlling factor on variations of H2O2 concentrations during the measurement period. Increasing concentrations of volatile organic compounds emitted by motor vehicles were important contributors to H2O2 and MHP enrichment. High levels of H2O2 and MHP concentrations which occurred during the measurement period probably resulted from the transport of a polluted air mass with high water vapor content passing over the Bohai Bay, China.

Aircraft measurements of SO2, NOx, CO, and O3 over the coastal and offshore area of Yellow Sea of China.

In order to investigate long-range transport of the air pollution in the East Asia, air pollutants, including SO2, NOx, CO, and O3, were observed by aircraft measurement over the coastal and offshore area of Yellow Sea of China in April 2011. NOx and SO2 seemed to become moderate in recent years, and the concentrations during the whole observations ranged from 0.49 to 9.57 ppb and from 0.10 to 16.02 ppb, respectively. The high concentrations of CO were measured with an average value of 0.98 ppm. The measured O3 average concentration was 76.25 ppb, which showed a higher level comparing with the results from some previous studies. Most of the results for the concentration values generally followed the typical characteristic of vertical and spatial distribution, which were "low altitude > high altitude" and "land/coastal > sea," respectively. Transport of polluted air mass from the continent to the aircraft measurement area was confirmed in some days during the observation by the meteorological analysis, while the measurement results supposed to represent the background level of the pollutants in rest days. Additionally, some small-scale air pollution plumes were observed. Significant positive correlations between NOx and SO2 indicated that these two species originated from the same region. On the other hand, good positive correlations between NOx and O3 found during 2-day flight suggested that the O3 formation was probably under "NOx-limited" regime in these days.

An overview of emissions of SO2 and NOx and the long-range transport of oxidized sulfur and nitrogen pollutants in East Asia.

The long-range transport of oxidized sulfur (sulfur dioxide (SO2) and sulfate) and oxidized nitrogen (nitrogen oxides (NOx) and nitrate) in East Asia is an area of increasing scientific interest and political concern. This paper reviews various published papers, including ground- and satellite-based observations and numerical simulations. The aim is to assess the status of the anthropogenic emissions of SO2 and NOx and the long-range transport of oxidized S and N pollutants over source and downwind region. China has dominated the emissions of SO2 and NOx in East Asia and urgently needs to strengthen the control of their emissions, especially NOx emissions. Oxidized S and N pollutants emitted from China are transported to Korea and Japan, due to persistent westerly winds, in winter and spring. However, the total contributions of China to S and N pollutants across Korea and Japan were not found to be dominant over longer time scales (e.g., a year). The source-receptor relationships for oxidized S and N pollutants in East Asia varied widely among the different studies. This is because: (1) the nonlinear effects of atmospheric chemistry and deposition processes were not well considered, when calculating the source-receptor relationships; (2) different meteorological and emission data inputs and solution schemes for key physical and chemical processes were used; and (3) different temporal and spatial scales were employed. Therefore, simulations using the same input fields and similar model configurations would be of benefit, to further evaluate the source-receptor relationships of the oxidized S and N pollutants.

Analysis of the origin of peak aerosol optical depth in springtime over the Gulf of Tonkin.

By aggregating MODIS (moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer) AOD (aerosol optical depth) and OMI (ozone monitoring instrument) UVAI (ultra violet aerosol index) datasets over 2010-2014, it was found that peak aerosol loading in seasonal variation occurred annually in spring over the Gulf of Tonkin (17-23 °N, 105-110 °E). The vertical structure of the aerosol extinction coefficient retrieved from the spaceborne lidar CALIOP (cloud-aerosol lidar with orthogonal polarization) showed that the springtime peak AOD could be attributed to an abrupt increase in aerosol loading between altitudes of 2 and 5 km. In contrast, aerosol loading in the low atmosphere (below 1 km) was only half of that in winter. Wind fields in the low and high atmosphere exhibited opposite transportation patterns in spring over the Gulf of Tonkin, implying different sources for each level. By comparing the emission inventory of anthropogenic sources with biomass burning, and analyzing the seasonal variation of the vertical structure of aerosols over the Northern Indo-China Peninsula (NIC), it was concluded that biomass burning emissions contributed to high aerosol loading in spring. The relatively high topography and the high surface temperature in spring made planetary boundary layer height greater than 3 km over NIC. In addition, small-scale cumulus convection frequently occurred, facilitating pollutant rising to over 3 km, which was a height favoring long-range transport. Thus, pollutants emitted from biomass burning over NIC in spring were raised to the high atmosphere, then experienced long-range transport, leading to the increase in aerosol loading at high altitudes over the Gulf of Tonkin during spring.

Unveiling the importance of VOCs from pesticides applicated in main crops for elevating ozone concentrations in China.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are considered as important precursors of ozone in the air, while the contribution of VOCs from pesticide application (PVOCs) to ozone production is unknown. Utilizing data from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of the People's Republic of China and ChinaCropPhen1km, this paper developed PVOC emission inventories with a resolution of 1 km for the main crops (rice, maize, and wheat) from 2012 to 2019 in China. The results revealed that pesticide application is an important VOC emission source in China. Specially, the PVOC emissions from the major grain-producing regions in June accounted for approximately 30% of the annual total PVOC emissions in the local regions. The simulation with the Weather Research and Forecasting Community Multiscale Air Quality model (WRF-CMAQ) indicated that the PVOC emissions increased the mean maximum daily 8-hour average (MDA8) ozone concentration across China by 2.5 ppb in June 2019. During the same period, PVOCs in the parts of North China Plain contributed 10% of the ozone formation. Under the comprehensive emission reduction scenario, it is anticipated that by 2025, the joint implementation of measures including reducing pesticide application, improving pesticide utilization efficiency and promoting solvent substitution will decrease PVOC emissions by 60% compared with 2019, thereby mitigating ozone pollution.

Pollution characteristics and sources of carbonyl compounds in a typical city of Fenwei Plain, Linfen, in summer.

Field measurements of atmospheric carbonyl compounds (carbonyls) and essential precursors of O3 were carried out in the urban area of Linfen City (Linfen) where serious O3 pollution has occurred in recent years due to its unique terrain. Carbonyls were sampled using an automatic carbonyl sampler in August 2019 to determine their pollution characteristics and sources. An average concentration of ten carbonyls was 27 ± 5.7 µg m-3 detected using an HPLC-UV system. The concentrations of most detected carbonyls in August were significantly higher than those in the winter months in China. Acetone, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde were the most abundant species, accounting for 73% of all detected carbonyls. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and methacrolein (MACR) were the most significant contributors to OH• reactivity and ozone generation, indicating that these three carbonyls were the key species influencing the production of O3. The concentrations of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and MACR showed similar diurnal variations on most days, with high values during the daytime reaching a peak at 10:00. However, the concentrations of the latter two species varied less than that of formaldehyde during the day. The acetone concentration generally increased continuously from morning to night, with the maximum value around 22:00. The C1/C2 ratio in summer was higher than that in winter. These results indicated that the carbonyls in Linfen were not only affected by anthropogenic sources such as vehicle exhaust but also by secondary photochemical production. The results of formaldehyde source apportionment showed that the contributions of background, primary, and secondary sources to the observed formaldehyde concentration were 27.6%, 36.6%, and 35.8%, respectively. Additionally, this study revealed for the first time that the vertical transport of air masses containing high concentrations of O3 and NO3 radicals above the boundary layer could increase the secondary generation of formaldehyde at night in summer.

[Meteorological Impact Assessment of PM2.5 and O3 Complex Pollution in Key Regions of China Based on Meteorological Conditions Index].

Meteorological conditions play a key role in the occurrence and evolution of atmospheric complex pollution. Considering the different pollution formation mechanisms of PM2.5 and O3, statistical calculation and in-depth learning methods were used to construct the PM2.5 and O3 meteorological condition indexes based on long-term pollution meteorological observation data. A research method was developed to study the meteorological characteristics and impact contribution of atmospheric complex pollution by using the meteorological condition index, and quantitative analysis of the distribution and variation of pollution excluding the influence of regional meteorological differences was also conducted. The results showed that in the summer of 2021, the pollution meteorological conditions in the key regions in central and eastern China were generally worse in the north and better in the south(index:"2+26" cities>the border area of Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong, and Henan>the Yangtze River Delta) and the worst in June and the best in July. The "double high" pollution began to appear when the PM2.5 meteorological condition index>30 and O3 meteorological condition index>100; meanwhile, the unfavorable meteorological conditions for O3 also promoted the increase in PM2.5 concentration, resulting in the frequency of "double high" increases with the increase in O3 meteorological condition index. Compared with that during the same period last year, ρ(PM2.5) of each region decreased by 3.9 µg·m-3, 3.3 µg·m-3, and 1.4 µg·m-3 due to the contribution of the improvement in the pollution meteorological conditions, which is nearly 58.5% on average of the total decrease in PM2.5 concentration. However, the change in O3 pollution meteorological conditions was better in the north and worse in the south, and the overall deterioration in the Yangtze River Delta Region led to approximately 2.8 µg·m-3 growth for the O3 concentration. The PM2.5 and O3 concentrations after excluding the impact of meteorological differences showed different distribution characteristics from the air quality monitoring, in which the high concentrations of PM2.5 were distributed along the Bohai Sea, the inter-provincial border, and the south of the region, whereas the high concentrations of O3 were concentrated along the Taihang Mountains, around Mount Tai, and in parts of the Yangtze River Delta. The daily concentration variations in a single city during a specific pollution control period could be used as a basis for evaluating the effectiveness of local supervision and control, which will provide a reference for the dynamic supervision and daily scheduling of local control management.

Aerosol effects on ozone concentrations in Beijing: a model sensitivity study.

Most previous O3 simulations were based only on gaseous phase photochemistry. However, some aerosol-related processes, namely, heterogeneous reactions occurring on the aerosol surface and photolysis rate alternated by aerosol radiative influence, may affect O3 photochemistry under high aerosol loads. A three-dimensional air quality model, Models-3/Community Multi-scale Air Quality-Model of Aerosol Dynamics, Reaction, Ionization, and Dissolution, was employed to simulate the effects of the above-mentioned processes on O3 formation under typical high O3 episodes in Beijing during summer. Five heterogeneous reactions, i.e., NO2, NO3, N2O5, HO2, and O3, were individually investigated to elucidate their effects on 03 formation. The results showed that the heterogeneous reactions significantly affected O3 formation in the urban plume. NO2 heterogeneous reaction increased O3 to 90 ppb, while HO2 heterogeneous reaction decreased O3 to 33 ppb. In addition, O3 heterogeneous loss decreased O3 to 31 ppb. The effects of NO2, NO3, and N2O5 heterogeneous reactions showed opposite O3 concentration changes between the urban and extra-urban areas because of the response of the reactions to the two types of O3 formation regimes. When the aerosol radiative influence was included, the photolysis rate decreased and O3 decreased significantly to 73 ppb O3. The two aerosol-related processes should be considered in the study of O3 formation because high aerosol concentration is a ubiquitous phenomenon that affects the urban- and regional air quality in China.

SO2 emission cap planning for Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone.

The SO2 emission sources of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone were divided into 556 emissions units according to four different categories, which are city, industry, point sources, and area sources. The CALPUFF model was used to calculate the contribution of each unit, and consequently obtain an influence-transferring matrix. To ensure that the SO2 concentrations of 46 cities and counties in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic zone meet air quality standards, an emission optimization model was developed to calculate optimal emissions of each emission unit under different development scenarios. The result showed the optimal emissions of SO2 by different provinces and industries. To achieve the target of restricting and optimizing development, corresponding planning programs were developed for every district.

[Analysis of Characteristics and Causes of a Typical Haze Pollution in Beijing in the Winter of 2019].

In order to study the pollution characteristics and causes of winter haze pollution in Beijing, a typical PM2.5 pollution process in Beijing in December 2019 was used as the analysis object using aerosol vertical detection data, boundary layer meteorological field and near-ground turbulence data, and the difference in haze. The characteristics of the pollution stage and the evolution of the physical and chemical characteristics of the boundary layer were comprehensively analyzed. The results showed that ① the pollution process in Beijing during the observation period lasted 5 d and experienced two generations and eliminations. The maximum hourly PM2.5 concentration was 220 µg·m-3 and the time exceeding the severe pollution standard was 64 h, thereby accounting for 53% of the total time. ② The aerosol optical properties and meteorological field observation data showed that the pollution originated from the regional transmission of aerosols and water vapor on the surface of the southwest urban agglomeration in Beijing, which accounted for 48% of the total pollution transmission, followed by a stable high-altitude situation and ground pressure field configuration. The near-surface layer maintained weak southerly winds (wind speed: 1-2 m·s-1), a strong inversion temperature close to the ground ï¼»0.8 K·(100 m)-1ï¼½, high humidity (relative humidity above 80%), and other unfavorable diffusion weather conditions, thereby promoting the accumulation of pollutants and the conversion of moisture absorption. Superimposing local pollution emissions were the main reasons for the maintenance of haze days. In addition, the near-ground extinction coefficient increased from 0.070 km-1 to 5.954 km-1, and the depolarization ratio decreased from 0.05 to 0.02 during the two pollution generation and disappearance processes, thereby indicating that the spherical characteristics of aerosols gradually became significant as the pollution increased. ③ The analysis of the turbulence observation data showed that the characteristic quantities of different pollution stages were significantly different and negatively correlated with the pollutant concentration. Before the occurrence of heavy pollution, the turbulence statistics (turbulence intensity, friction velocity, and turbulent kinetic energy) suddenly decreased from high values (the hourly variation rate was 77%, thereby far exceeding the daily fluctuation of 33%), and the turbulence intensity responded first. During the pollution accumulation stage, the friction velocity (0.04-0.21 m·s-1), turbulence intensity (average: 0.678 m2·s-2), and turbulence energy (average: 0.643 m2·s-2) were maintained at a low level, and the bottom atmosphere had a poor mixing and diffusion ability, which is important for continuous pollution accumulation. Four hours before the end of the pollution event, the turbulence intensity again showed a sharp increase (increment of more than one order of magnitude); thus, the turbulence intensity can be used as a predictive indicator of the occurrence and end of a heavy pollution event, and the response time is the same as the continuous turbulence intensity after the turbulence peak. In addition, the sensible heat fluxes on sunny days and haze days were both transported from the ground to the atmosphere, and showed clear daily single-peak changes. The sensible heat flux on haze days (20 W·m-2) was smaller than that on sunny days (60 W·m-2). The latent heat flux was approximately 0 W·m-2 in the whole process. ④ There was a feedback effect between the meteorological conditions of the pollution layer and the boundary layer. On the one hand, unfavorable diffusion of the meteorological conditions was conducive to the accumulation of pollution. On the other hand, the aerosol layer and water vapor cooling effect that accumulated near the ground were worse than the night cooling radiation on the inversion layer The contribution was greater, thereby further inhibiting the development of turbulent motion and ultimately resulting in increased pollution.

[Numerical Study on the Characteristics of Regional Transport of PM2.5 in Shandong Province During Spring in 2014].

In this paper, spatial and temporal distribution, transportation and deposition of PM2.5 in Shandong Province in Spring, 2014 were all analyzed by applying PSAT of CAMx model and we also developed a transport matrix of PM2.5 between different cities in Shandong. The results showed that ρ(PM2.5) presented obvious spatial distribution characteristics; ρ(PM2.5) was higher in the western part compared to that in peninsula and ρ(PM2.5) was mainly concentrated below 2 000 m in vertical direction. Simulated horizontal transport flux of PM2.5 was up to 110 µg.(m2.s)-1 and the total deposition amount of PM2.5 was 23. 05 x 10(4) t in Shandong during Spring, 2014. Analysis of regional contribution found that the pollutants mainly came from local districts and the average external transport contribution to the whole Shandong province was about 21. 08% ± 3. 83% while it was 40. 45% ± 5. 96% between different cities; the contribution rates of Jinjinji distrcit, background and boundary conditions gradually increased by 7. 56% and 6. 18% respectively as the altitude increased.

Sulfur deposition simulations over China, Japan, and Korea: a model intercomparison study for abating sulfur emission.

In response to increasing trends in sulfur deposition in Northeast Asia, three countries in the region (China, Japan, and Korea) agreed to devise abatement strategies. The concepts of critical loads and source-receptor (S-R) relationships provide guidance for formulating such strategies. Based on the Long-range Transboundary Air Pollutants in Northeast Asia (LTP) project, this study analyzes sulfur deposition data in order to optimize acidic loads over the three countries. The three groups involved in this study carried out a full year (2002) of sulfur deposition modeling over the geographic region spanning the three countries, using three air quality models: MM5-CMAQ, MM5-RAQM, and RAMS-CADM, employed by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean modeling groups, respectively. Each model employed its own meteorological numerical model and model parameters. Only the emission rates for SO(2) and NO(x) obtained from the LTP project were the common parameter used in the three models. Three models revealed some bias from dry to wet deposition, particularly the latter because of the bias in annual precipitation. This finding points to the need for further sensitivity tests of the wet removal rates in association with underlying cloud-precipitation physics and parameterizations. Despite this bias, the annual total (dry plus wet) sulfur deposition predicted by the models were surprisingly very similar. The ensemble average annual total deposition was 7,203.6 ± 370 kt S with a minimal mean fractional error (MFE) of 8.95 ± 5.24 % and a pattern correlation (PC) of 0.89-0.93 between the models. This exercise revealed that despite rather poor error scores in comparison with observations, these consistent total deposition values across the three models, based on LTP group's input data assumptions, suggest a plausible S-R relationship that can be applied to the next task of designing cost-effective emission abatement strategies.