Abstract. The Chinese government has exerted strict emission controls
to mitigate air pollution since 2013, which has resulted in significant
decreases in the concentrations of air pollutants such as SO2. Strict
pollution control actions also reduced the average PM2.5 concentration
to the low level of 39.7 µg m−3 in urban Beijing during the winter
of 2017. To investigate the impact of such changes on the physiochemical
properties of atmospheric aerosols in China, we conducted a comprehensive
observation focusing on PM2.5 in Beijing during the winter of 2017.
Compared with the historical record (2014–2017), SO2 decreased to the
low level of 3.2 ppbv in the winter of 2017, but the NO2 level was still
high (21.4 ppbv in the winter of 2017). Accordingly, the contribution of nitrate
(23.0 µg m−3) to PM2.5 far exceeded that of sulfate (13.1 µg m−3) during the pollution episodes, resulting in a significant
increase in the nitrate-to-sulfate molar ratio. The thermodynamic model
(ISORROPIA II) calculation results showed that during the PM2.5
pollution episodes particle pH increased from 4.4 (moderate acidic) to 5.4
(more neutralized) when the molar ratio of nitrate to sulfate increased from
1 to 5, indicating that aerosols were more neutralized as the nitrate
content elevated. Controlled variable tests showed that the pH elevation
should be attributed to nitrate fraction increase other than crustal ion and
ammonia concentration increases. Based on the results of sensitivity tests, future prediction for the particle acidity change was discussed. We
found that nitrate-rich particles in Beijing at low and moderate humid
conditions (RH: 20 %–50 %) can absorb twice the amount of water that
sulfate-rich particles can, and the nitrate and ammonia with higher levels have
synergetic effects, rapidly elevating particle pH to merely neutral (above
5.6). As moderate haze events might occur more frequently under abundant
ammonia and nitrate-dominated PM2.5 conditions, the major chemical
processes during haze events and the control target should be re-evaluated
to obtain the most effective control strategy.
Characteristics of Haze Pollution Episodes and Analysis of a Typical Winter Haze Process in Shanghai
