Divergent summertime surface O3 pollution formation mechanisms in two typical Chinese cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Fenwei Plain

Chenlu Li; Feng Li; Qiang Cheng; Yitian Guo; Ziyin Zhang; Xingang Liu; Yu Qu; Junling An; Yafei Liu; Siqing Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161868

Divergent summertime surface O₃ pollution formation mechanisms in two typical Chinese cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Fenwei Plain

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Apr 20:870:161868. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161868. Epub 2023 Jan 31.

Authors

Chenlu Li¹, Feng Li², Qiang Cheng³, Yitian Guo⁴, Ziyin Zhang⁵, Xingang Liu⁶, Yu Qu⁷, Junling An⁴, Yafei Liu¹, Siqing Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
² Jining Ecological Environment Monitoring Center, Jining 272000, China.
³ Dongchangfu Branch of Liaocheng Ecological Environment Bureau, Liaocheng 252000, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China.
⁵ Institute of Urban Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100089, China.
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: liuxingang@bnu.edu.cn.
⁷ State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China. Electronic address: quyu@mail.iap.ac.cn.

PMID: 36731547
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161868

Abstract

Recently, severe summertime ozone (O₃) pollution has swept across most areas of China, especially the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region and Fenwei Plain. By focusing on Beijing and Yuncheng, which are two typical cities in the BTH region and the Fenwei Plain, we intended to reveal the neglected fact that they had disparate emission features and atmospheric movements but suffered from similar high-O₃ pollution levels. Field observations indicated that Yuncheng had lower volatile organic compound (VOC) and NO_x concentrations but higher background O₃ levels. The model simulation verified that both photochemical reactions and net O₃ generation were stronger in Beijing. Ultimately, faster net O₃ generation rates (8.4 ppbv/h) plus lower background O₃ values in Beijing and lower net O₃ generation rates (6.2 ppbv/h) plus higher background O₃ values in Yuncheng caused both regions to reach similar O₃ peak values in July 2020. However, different O₃ control measures were appropriate for the two cities according to the different simulated O₃-VOCs-NO_x responses. Additionally, as surface O₃ levels are greatly affected by the ongoing O₃ production/depletion process that occurs in three dimensions, exploring the effects of spatially distributed O₃ on surface O₃ should be high on the agenda in the future.

Keywords: O(3) pollution formation mechanism; Photochemical reaction; Process analysis; VOCs; WRF-Chem.