Sources and vertical distribution of PM2.5 over Shanghai during the winter of 2017

Kun Zhang; Lei Zhou; Qingyan Fu; Lei Yan; Lidia Morawska; Rohan Jayaratne; Guangli Xiu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135683

Sources and vertical distribution of PM_2.5 over Shanghai during the winter of 2017

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Mar 1:706:135683. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135683. Epub 2019 Nov 22.

Authors

Kun Zhang¹, Lei Zhou², Qingyan Fu³, Lei Yan⁴, Lidia Morawska⁵, Rohan Jayaratne⁵, Guangli Xiu⁶

Affiliations

¹ State Environmental Protection Key Lab of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Processes, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China; School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, PR China; Shanghai Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Environmental Standard and Risk Management of Chemical Pollutants, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China; Centre for Medical and Health Physics, Queensland University of Technology, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
² State Environmental Protection Key Lab of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Processes, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China; Shanghai Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Environmental Standard and Risk Management of Chemical Pollutants, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, PR China. Electronic address: zhoulei@ecust.edu.cn.
³ Shanghai Environmental Monitoring Center, Shanghai 200235, PR China.
⁴ State Environmental Protection Key Lab of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Processes, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China; Shanghai Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Environmental Standard and Risk Management of Chemical Pollutants, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China.
⁵ Centre for Medical and Health Physics, Queensland University of Technology, GPO Box 2434, Brisbane, Qld 4001, Australia.
⁶ State Environmental Protection Key Lab of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Processes, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China; Shanghai Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Environmental Standard and Risk Management of Chemical Pollutants, School of Resources & Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science & Technology, Shanghai 200237, PR China; Shanghai Institute of Pollution Control and Ecological Security, Shanghai 200092, PR China. Electronic address: xiugl@ecust.edu.cn.

PMID: 31940722
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135683

Abstract

Shanghai, a metropolitan city in China, has suffered from severe air pollution, especially PM_2.5, in the last few years. Up to now the contribution of local emission and regional transport to the formation of haze in Shanghai remains unclear. With an aim to characterize the mechanism of haze formation in Shanghai, the present paper attempted to provide an overview of a tethered balloon-based field campaign. According to the backward trajectories, the air mass traveling slowly from Jiangsu province accounted for the highest PM_2.5 concentration (66 ± 20 μg/m³). Seventy vertical profiles of PM_2.5, NO, NO₂, SO₂ and O₃ within 1000 m were obtained, through which a comparison study on the characteristics of the vertical distributions of air pollutants on clean days and haze days was conducted. When altitude increased, clearly decreasing pattern of PM_2.5, NO, and NO₂ was observed during the field campaign. Due to the low atmospheric boundary layer, the diffusion of air pollutants was suppressed, which favored the formation of haze. The results of the generalized additive model revealed NO₂ could the most significant factor influencing the vertical distribution of PM_2.5 in both clean and haze days. This study provides new insight into the sources and vertical distribution of PM_2.5, which could offer references for air pollution modeling.

Keywords: GAMs; Tethered balloon; Vertical profiles, Shanghai.