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.     

Formation processes and source contributions of ground‐level ozone in urban and suburban Beijing using the WRF‐CMAQ modelling system

Beijing faces the challenge of high levels of ozone (O₃) pollution. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting model and Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ) were used to simulate atmospheric O₃ concentrations in Beijing. To investigate the formation mechanisms and source contributions of O₃ pollution in different regions of Beijing, process analysis and the integrated source apportionment method within the CMAQ were applied to O₃ concentrations in the summer of 2018. The process analysis results showed that vertical diffusion was the major contributor to O₃ concentrations at all receptor sites in Beijing, at > 65.94 µg/(m³·hr). Gas-phase chemical reactions consumed a significant amount of O₃ in urban and inner suburban areas (> −5.57 µg/(m³·hr)), while near-surface chemical reactions made positive contributions in outer suburban areas (> 4.72 µg/(m³·hr)). The O₃ formation chemical reactions indicated that NO titration, which removes O₃ at night-time, mainly occurred in urban areas. The weaker chemical reactions occurring near the surface in outer suburbs suggested that suburban-area O₃ was produced in the upper atmospheric layers and was transported vertically to the lower layers. The O₃ source apportionment results showed that boundary contributions were the dominant contributor to O₃ pollution in Beijing (> 40%). The contribution of non-local emissions to O₃ levels was significantly greater in the outer suburbs than in urban and inner suburban areas due to topography. This study increases the understanding of the complex processes of O₃ formation in different areas of Beijing and informs the implementation of O₃ control plans.     

Vertical distribution of volatile organic compounds conducted by tethered balloon in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of China

Volatile organic compounds(VOCs) as precursors of ozone and secondary organic aerosols can cause adverse effects on the environment and human health.However,knowledge of the VOC vertical profile in the lower troposphere of major Chinese cities is poorly understood.In this study,tethered balloon flights were conducted over the juncture of BeijingTianjin-Hebei in China during the winter of 2016.Thirty-six vertical air samples were collected on selected heavy and light pollution days at altitudes o...     

Vertical distributions of tropospheric SO2 based on MAX-DOAS observations: Investigating the impacts of regional transport at different heights in the boundary layer

Information on the vertical distribution of air pollutants is essential for understanding their spatiotemporal evolution underlying urban atmospheric environment. This paper presents the SO₂ profiles based on ground-based Multi-Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) measurements from March 2018 to February 2019 in Hefei, East China. SO₂ decrease rapidly with increasing heights in the warm season, while lifted layers were observed in the cold season, indicating accumulation or long-range transport of SO₂ in different seasons might occur at different heights. The diurnal variations of SO₂ were roughly consistent for all four seasons, exhibiting the minimum at noon and higher values in the morning and late afternoon. Lifted layers of SO₂ were observed in the morning for fall and winter, implying the accumulation or transport of SO₂ in the morning mainly occurred at the top of the boundary layer. The bivariate polar plots showed that weighted SO₂ concentrations in the lower altitude were weakly dependent on wind, but in the middle and upper altitudes, higher weighted SO₂ concentrations were observed under conditions of middle-high wind speed. Concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) analysis suggested that potential sources of SO₂ in spring and summer were local and transported mainly occurred in the lower altitude from southern and eastern areas; while in fall and winter, SO₂ concentrations were deeply affected by long-range transport from northwestern and northern polluted regions in the middle and upper altitudes. Our findings provide new insight into the impacts of regional transport at different heights in the boundary layer on SO₂ pollution.