A new approach to spatial source apportionment of haze pollution in large scale and its application in China

Long-lasting expansion of haze pollution in China has already presented a stern challenge to regional joint prevention and control. There is an urgent need to enlarge and reconstruct the coverage of joint prevention and control of air pollution in key area. Air quality models can identify and quantify the regional contribution of haze pollution and its key components with the help of numerical simulation, but it is difficult to be applied to larger spatial scale due to the complexity of model parameters. The time series analysis can recognize the existence of spatial interaction of haze pollution between cities, but it has not yet been used to further identify the spatial sources of haze pollution in large scale. Using econometric framework of time series analysis, this paper developed a new approach to perform spatial source apportionment. We applied this approach to calculate the contribution from spatial sources of haze pollution in China, using the monitoring data of particulate matter (PM_2.5) across 161 Chinese cities. This approach overcame the limitation of numerical simulation that the model complexity increases at excess with the expansion of sample range, and could effectively deal with severe large-scale haze episodes.     

从雾霾防治的环境保护执法问题看行政能力建设

雾霾是近年出现的因空气质量恶化引起的气象灾害,我国多地区均出现过不同程度的雾霾天气。雾霾天气使社会各界对环境的忧虑提升到了空前的高度。本文拟从环境保护行政执法的角度浅谈雾霾防治,阐述了当前雾霾防治的环保执法问题和相关建议。     

北京地区冬夏季持续性雾-霾发生的环境气象条件对比分析

在北京地区,除冬季供暖期外盛夏也是雾-霾天气的高发季节,与我国南方不同.使用微波辐射仪、风廓线和常规气象探测资料、NCEP再分析资料以及大气成分观测结果,通过对比分析揭示了冬、夏季持续6 d的2个雾-霾过程形成和维持机制的异同.冬季雾-霾过程出现在高空西北气流、低层多短波活动的背景下,其形成和维持的主要机制是边界层内始终有逆温层、地面弱风场、底层湿度逐渐增大.逆温层昼高夜低、湿度昼小夜大是影响PM2.5质量浓度和能见度日变化的重要环境因子.在雾-霾天气持续期间地面弱风场能够维持主要源于冷空气势力弱、常不能影响到地面.此外,入夜后地面迅速辐射降温、边界层上层有暖平流以及空气过山后下沉增温在逆温层的形成中起了关键作用.然而,对于夏季持续性雾-霾天气,气溶胶区域输送、环境大气保持对流性稳定、空气的高饱和度是其发生的重要条件.在副热带高压长时间控制下对流层低层盛行偏南风,北京的PM2.5质量浓度随着偏南风风速增大升高.对流层底层系统性偏南风与北京附近的山谷风共同构成了从北京以南气溶胶累积地向北输送的机制.夏季雾-霾过程低层没有逆温,但是北京上空一直维持超过200 J·kG-1的对流抑制能量,它同样限制了污染物的垂直扩散.夏季自由对流高度也存在昼夜变化,其对PM2.5浓度和能见度的作用与逆温层高度升降相同.因此,冬、夏个例分别代表了2种不同类型的持续性雾-霾过程,导致差异的根本原因在于大气环流型.     

遥感技术在灰霾监测中的应用综述

介绍了灰霾遥感监测的基本原理,论述了基于图像变换的TC法、HOT法和基于反演气溶胶光学厚度的灰霾遥感监测技术,以及造成灰霾天气的秸秆燃烧遥感监测方法.指出卫星遥感技术可以提供大尺度、长时间序列的污染物时空分布特征和变化趋势,以及全球性的大气环境综合遥感数据,是灰霾监测与综合治理的重要途径.     

Concentrations and chemical compositions of PM10 during hazy and non-hazy days in Beijing

In order to study the concentrations of major components,characteristics and comparison in hazy and non-hazy days of PM_(10) in Beijing,aerosol samples were collected at urban site in Beijing from December 29,2014 to January 22,2015.Heavy metals like Zn,Pb,Mn,Cu,As,V,Cr and Cd were deeply studied considering their toxic effects on human being;nine water-soluble inorganic ions(SO_4~(2-),NO_3~-,NH_4~+,Na~+,K~+,Cl~-,Ca~(2+) and Mg~(2+)) and carbon fractions(OC and EC) were also analyzed.The concentrations of heavy metals were 1.03–1.98 times higher in hazy days than those in non-hazy days,mainly due to biomass burning and coal burning.The trends in total heavy metals concentrations were basically consistent with the trends in PM concentrations except for two obvious periods(12.29–12.30;1.14–1.15);but when air masses accumulated locally or around Beijing,trends in PM concentrations and heavy metals were opposite.The proportion for NO_3~-/SO_4~(2-) indicated that mobile sources such as automobiles were important reasons for haze in Beijing.Correlation between OC and EC during non-hazy days was strong(R~2= 0.95) but it was low(R~2= 0.67) during hazy days,and large variations for OC/EC values occurred in hazy days.The calculated mass concentration of SOC is 2.58 μg/m~3,which only accounted for 10.1% of the OC concentration.When air masses from the far north-west,they decreased PM concentration in Beijing and they were relatively clean;however,those from the near east,south-east and south of the mainland increased PM concentration and they were dirty.     

Communicating Haze Crisis Online: Comparing Traditional Media News and New Media Perspectives in Singapore

ABSTRACT

To understand haze-related online communication in Southeast Asia, this exploratory study took a mixed method approach to conduct web analysis of online communication during haze crisis in Singapore, followed by textual analysis of traditional and new media content during peak days. First, web analytics showed that Singapore’s haze online communication occurred mostly on the Twitter platform with primary negative sentiments. Next, textual analysis results found that majority of traditional media-affiliated news provided informative haze reports and centered on positive measurements taken by government and authorities, similar to Public Information Model for crisis management. In comparison, haze-related new media content had diverse topics reflecting laymen’s viewpoints with critical tones and negative sentiments. News portals and blogs used two-way asymmetrical and symmetrical model for crisis management, respectively. Additionally, Social Cognitive Theory’s media diversity perspectives were applied to understand people’s media choices among traditional and new media during natural crisis with environmental influences.     

Process analysis of characteristics of the boundary layer during a heavy haze pollution episode in an inland megacity, China

Ground observation data from 8 meteorological stations in Xi'an, air mass concentration data from 13 environmental quality monitoring sites in Xi'an, as well as radiosonde observation and wind profile radar data, were used in this study. Thereby, the process, causes and boundary layer meteorological characteristics of a heavy haze episode occurring from 16 to 25 December 2013 in Xi'an were analyzed. Principal component analysis showed that this haze pollution was mainly caused by the high-intensity emission and formation of gaseous pollutants (NO₂, CO and SO₂) and atmospheric particles (PM_2.5 (fine particles) and PM₁₀ (respirable suspended particle). The second cause was the relative humidity and continuous low temperature. The third cause was the allocation of the surface pressure field. The presence of a near-surface temperature inversion at the boundary layer formed favorable stratification conditions for the formation and maintenance of heavy haze pollution. The persistent thick haze layer weakened the solar radiation. Meanwhile, a warming effect in the urban canopy layer and in the transition zone from the urban friction sublayer to the urban canopy was indicated. All these conditions facilitated the maintenance and reinforcement of temperature inversion. The stable atmospheric stratification finally acted on the wind field in the boundary layer, and further weakened the exchange capacity of vertical turbulence. The superposition of a wind field with the horizontal gentle wind induced the typical air stagnation and finally caused the deterioration of air quality during this haze event.     

How aerosol direct effects influence the source contributions to PM2.5 concentrations over Southern Hebei,China in severe winter haze episodes

The aerosol direct effects result in a 3%–9% increase in PM_2.5 concentrations over Southern Hebei. These impacts are substantially different under different PM_2.5 loadings. Industrial and domestic contributions will be underestimated if ignoring the feedbacks. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area is the most air polluted region in China and the three neighborhood southern Hebei cities, Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, and Handan, are listed in the top ten polluted cities with severe PM_2.5 pollution. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the impacts of aerosol direct effects on air quality over the southern Hebei cities, as well as the impacts when considering those effects on source apportionment using three dimensional air quality models. The WRF/Chem model was applied over the East Asia and northern China at 36 and 12 km horizontal grid resolutions, respectively, for the period of January 2013, with two sets of simulations with or without aerosol-meteorology feedbacks. The source contributions of power plants, industrial, domestic, transportation, and agriculture are evaluated using the Brute-Force Method (BFM) under the two simulation configurations. Our results indicate that, although the increases in PM_2.5 concentrations due to those effects over the three southern Hebei cities are only 3%–9% on montly average, they are much more significant under high PM_2.5 loadings (~50 μg·m⁻³ when PM_2.5 concentrations are higher than 400 μg m⁻³). When considering the aerosol feedbacks, the contributions of industrial and domestic sources assessed using the BFM will obviously increase (e.g., from 30%–34% to 32%–37% for industrial), especially under high PM_2.5 loadings (e.g., from 36%–44% to 43%–47% for domestic when PM_2.5>400 μg·m⁻³). Our results imply that the aerosol direct effects should not be ignored during severe pollution episodes, especially in short-term source apportionment using the BFM.     

Influence of haze pollution on water-soluble chemical species in PM2.5 and size-resolved particles at an urban site during fall

To investigate the influence of haze on the chemical composition and formation processes of ambient aerosol particles,PM_(2.5) and size-segregated aerosol particles were collected daily during fall at an urban site of Gwangju,Korea.During the study period,the total concentration of secondary ionic species(SIS) contributed an average of 43.9% to the PM_(2.5) ,whereas the contribution of SIS to the PM_(2.5) during the haze period was 62.3%.The NO_3 and SO~(2-)_4 concentrations in PM_(2.5) during the haze period were highly elevated,being 13.4 and 5.0 times higher than those during non-haze period,respectively.The PM,NO~-_3,SO~(2-)_4,oxalate,water-soluble organic carbon(WSOC),and humic-like substances(HULIS) had tri-modal size distributions peaks at 0.32,1.0,and 5.2 μm during the non-haze and haze periods.However,during the non-haze period they exhibited dominant size distributions at the condensation mode peaking at 0.32 μm,while on October 21 when the heaviest haze event occurred,they had predominant droplet mode size distributions peaking at 1.00 μm.Moreover,strong correlations of WSOC and HULIS with SO~(2-)_4,oxalate,and K+at particle sizes of 1.8 μm indicate that secondary processes and emissions from biomass burning could be responsible for WSOC and HULIS formations.It was found that the factors affecting haze formation could be the local stable synoptic conditions,including the weak surface winds and high surface pressures,the long-range transportation of haze from eastern China and upwind regions of the Korean peninsula,as well as the locally emitted and produced aerosol particles.