Temporal variations of the contribution of combustion-derived water vapor to urban humidity during winter in Xi'an, China

Shuchi Liu; Hongxi Pang; Ningning Zhang; Meng Xing; Shuangye Wu; Shugui Hou

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154711

Temporal variations of the contribution of combustion-derived water vapor to urban humidity during winter in Xi'an, China

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jul 15:830:154711. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154711. Epub 2022 Mar 23.

Authors

Shuchi Liu¹, Hongxi Pang², Ningning Zhang³, Meng Xing⁴, Shuangye Wu⁵, Shugui Hou⁶

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Coast and Island Development of Ministry of Education, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
² Key Laboratory of Coast and Island Development of Ministry of Education, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. Electronic address: hxpang@nju.edu.cn.
³ Key Laboratory of Aerosol Chemistry and Physics, State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, Xi'an, China. Electronic address: zhangnn@ieecas.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Aerosol Chemistry and Physics, State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Quaternary Science and Global Change, Xi'an, China.
⁵ Department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH, USA.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Coast and Island Development of Ministry of Education, School of Geography and Ocean Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China; School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.

PMID: 35339560
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154711

Abstract

Combustion-derived water vapor (CDV) has significant impacts on urban climate and environment. However, temporal variations of contribution of CDV (CCDV) to urban humidity are unclear due to lack of observations. This study examined the temporal variations of CCDV in Xi'an during winter from 2016 to 2019. We found that the diurnal variation of CCDV is mainly controlled by atmospheric stability, but the peak of CCDV at 9 am is due to the increasing water vapor emission by motor vehicles during the morning rush hour. In addition, the monthly variation of CCDV is related to fossil fuel consumption, but the low values of CCDV in late January and early February is due to substantial decrease of energy utility because of the massive outflow of population during the Spring Festival. Our findings may be helpful for urban pollution control because CDV can play an important role in the secondary conversion of pollutants.

Keywords: Combustion-derived water vapor(CDV); Contribution of CDV to urban humidity; Stable water isotopes; Xi'an.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants* / analysis
China
Environmental Monitoring
Humidity
Seasons
Steam

Substances

Air Pollutants
Steam