Explicit diagnosis of the local ozone production rate and the ozone-NOx-VOC sensitivities

Zhaofeng Tan; Keding Lu; Huabin Dong; Min Hu; Xin Li; Yuhan Liu; Sihua Lu; Min Shao; Rong Su; Haichao Wang; Yusheng Wu; Andreas Wahner; Yuanhang Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2018.07.001

Explicit diagnosis of the local ozone production rate and the ozone-NO_x-VOC sensitivities

Sci Bull (Beijing). 2018 Aug 30;63(16):1067-1076. doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2018.07.001. Epub 2018 Jul 5.

Authors

Zhaofeng Tan¹, Keding Lu², Huabin Dong³, Min Hu³, Xin Li³, Yuhan Liu³, Sihua Lu³, Min Shao³, Rong Su³, Haichao Wang³, Yusheng Wu³, Andreas Wahner⁴, Yuanhang Zhang⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Institute of Energy and Climate Research, IEK-8: Troposphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich 52428, Germany.
² State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: k.lu@pku.edu.cn.
³ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
⁴ Institute of Energy and Climate Research, IEK-8: Troposphere, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich 52428, Germany.
⁵ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; Beijing Innovation Center for Engineering Sciences and Advanced Technology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China. Electronic address: yhzhang@pku.edu.cn.

PMID: 36755459
DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2018.07.001

Abstract

In the troposphere, ozone is a harmful gas compound to both human health and vegetation. Ozone is produced from the reaction of NO_x (NO + NO₂) and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) with light. Due to the highly nonlinear relationships between ozone and its precursors, proper ozone mitigation relies on the knowledge of chemical mechanisms. In this study, an observation-based method is used to simulate ozone formation and elucidate its controlling factors for a rural site on the North China Plain. The instantaneous ozone production rate is calculated utilizing a box model using the dataset obtained from the Wangdu campaign. First, the model was operated in a time-dependent mode to calculate the ozone production rate at each time stamp. The calculated ozone formation rate showed a diurnal average maximum value of 17 ppbv/h (1-h diurnal averaged). The contribution of individual peroxy radicals to ozone production was analyzed. In addition, the functional dependence of calculated P(O₃) reveals that ozone production was in a NO_x-limited regime during the campaign. Furthermore, the missing peroxy radical source will further extend NO_x-limited conditions to earlier in the day, making NO_x limitation dominate more of a day than the current chemical model predicts. Finally, a multiple scenarios mode, also known as EKMA (empirical kinetic modeling approach), was used to simulate the response of P(O₃) to the imaginary change in precursor concentrations. We found that ozone production was in the NO_x-limited region. However, the use of NO₂ measured by the molybdenum converter and/or the absence of a peroxy radical source in the current chemical model could over-emphasize the VOC-limited effect on ozone production.

Keywords: (empirical kinetic modeling approach) EKMA; Instantaneous ozone production rate; Observational-based model.