Vertical Distribution Characteristics and Formation/Dissipation Mechanisms of Air Pollutants in Xingtai, China Based on Multi-source Data: A Case Study

Details

• Journal Title:
  Boundary-Layer Meteorology
• Personal Author:
  Jiang, Qi ; Wang, Fei ; Li, Zhanqing ; You, Yuan ; Jin, Yuchen ; Li, Siteng ; Sun, Yele ; Zhang, Yingjie ; Ren, Xinrong ; He, Hao ; Dickerson, Russell R.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; ARL (Air Resources Laboratory)
• Description:
  The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration is one of the regions in China with the most severe air pollution. Using aircraft observations collected over Xingtai in May 2016 and multi-source data, such as aerosol chemical composition and lidar data, we analyzed aerosol composition and optical properties, vertical pollution characteristics of gases within the boundary layer, and their interactions with meteorological parameters. This study focuses on investigating the transport and evolution mechanisms of pollutants during transitions from polluted research flight No.7(RF7) to clean research flight No.8 (RF8) periods in summertime Xingtai. Results show that during RF7, the near-surface submicron aerosol (PM1) mass concentration was generally low (37.5 µg m−3), with the contribution of inorganic salts far exceeding that of organic matter. Aircraft observations indicated weak cold-air activities above 1000 m during RF8, while the southeasterly wind still prevailed below 1000 m, with a slight increase in wind speed. From RF7 to RF8, the overall vertical atmosphere gradually transitioned from polluted to clean conditions. During RF8, an inversion layer appeared in the temperature profile between 1100 and 1300 m, with ~ 21.3% of this inversion coming from black carbon heating. Changes in meteorological and pollution transport conditions led to significant differences in PM1 and gaseous components between RF7 and RF8. Compared to RF7, the contribution of nitrates decreased markedly during RF8, with the organic matter becoming the dominant component of PM1. During RF7, sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and carbon monoxide (CO) were strongly correlated with the scattering coefficient, with correlation coefficients of 0.92 and 0.96 for SO2 and NO2, respectively. By contrast, during RF8, the correlations between SO2, NO2, and CO and the scattering coefficient decreased, with SO2 having the highest correlation with the scattering coefficient (coefficient of determination = 0.88). From RF7 to RF8, the concentrations of various pollutants within the boundary layer, except for ozone (O3), had decreasing trends. When the relative humidity was below 50%, O3 generally contributed positively to extinction. There was no pronounced correlation between O3 and relative humidity when the relative humidity exceeded 50%.
• Source:
  Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 191(3)
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-025-00900-5
• ISSN:
  0006-8314 ; 1573-1472
• Format:
  pdf
• Publisher:
  Springer Science and Business Media LLC
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Rights Information:
  Accepted Manuscript
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4453dcb472f07398a94a2d0d220b0505eea579b0d315c72219ad3ffe4360003a425ffb6b3b42e7874501e7549ecc4a0737e144c5d4f0c2780f103210cc117e6c
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/71270/noaa_71270_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.34 MB ]