scholarly journals Surface ozone trend details and interpretations in Beijing, 2001–2006

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (22) ◽  
pp. 8813-8823 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Tang ◽  
X. Li ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
J. Xin ◽  
X. Ren

Abstract. Beijing is a megacity situated in the rapidly developing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of northern China. In this study, we analyze data on ozone and nitrogen oxide levels obtained at six urban sites in Beijing between the months of July and September. Our goal is to investigate average trends and interpretations over the 2001–2006 period. Average concentrations of NOx (NOx=NO+NO2), O3, and Ox (Ox=O3+NO2) were 49.2±5.9 ppbv, 26.6±2.8 ppbv, and 60.3±1.9 ppbv, respectively. NOx concentrations decreased linearly at a rate of 3.9±0.5 ppbv/yr after 2002, while ozone concentrations increased at a rate of 1.1±0.5 ppbv/yr during 2001–2006, and Ox concentrations remained nearly constant. The reduction of NOx emissions and elevated non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHCs) emissions may have contributed to the increased O3 concentrations in Beijing. When the contributions from Beijing's urban and surrounding areas were disaggregated via trajectory cluster analysis, daily maximum and average Ox concentrations attributable to Beijing's local emissions increased linearly at rates of 1.3±0.6 ppbv/yr and 0.8±0.6 ppbv/yr, while the Ox concentrations attributable to regional areas decreased linearly at rates of 0.6±0.3 ppbv/yr and 0.5±0.3 ppbv/yr, respectively. The decrease in Ox concentrations of the surrounding areas was found to counteract increasing Beijing urban Ox production, leading to nearly constant Ox concentrations in the Beijing region over the study period. Our results may be helpful for redefining government strategies to control the photochemical formation of air pollutants in the Beijing region. Our conclusions have relevance for developing megacities worldwide.

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 8159-8185 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Tang ◽  
X. Li ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
J. Xin ◽  
X. Ren

Abstract. Beijing is a megacity situated in the rapidly developing Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of northern China. In this study, we analyze data on ozone and nitrogen oxide levels obtained at six urban sites in Beijing between the months of July and September. Our goal is to investigate average trends and interpretations over the 2001–2006 period. Average concentrations of NOx (NOx=NO+NO2), O3, and Ox (Ox=O3+NO2) were 49.2±5.9 ppbv, 26.6±2.8 ppbv, and 60.3±1.9 ppbv, respectively. NOx concentrations decreased linearly at a rate of 3.9±0.5 ppbv/yr after 2002, while ozone concentrations increased at a rate of 1.1±0.5 ppbv/yr in a two-year cycle during 2001–2006, and Ox concentrations remained nearly constant. The reduction of NOx emissions and elevated non-methane hydrocarbon (NMHCs) emissions may have contributed to the increased O3 concentrations in Beijing. When the contributions from Beijings urban and surrounding areas were disaggregated via trajectory cluster analysis, daily maximum and average Ox concentrations attributable to Beijing local emissions increased linearly at rates of 1.3±0.6 ppbv/yr and 0.8±0.6 ppbv/yr, while the Ox concentrations attributable to regional areas decreased linearly at rates of 0.6±0.3 ppbv/yr and 0.5±0.3 ppbv/yr, respectively. The decrease in Ox concentrations of surrounding areas was found to counteract increasing Beijing urban Ox production, leading to nearly constant Ox concentrations in the Beijing region over the study period. Our results may be helpful for redefining government strategies to control the photochemical formation of air pollutants in the Beijing region. Our conclusions have relevance for developing megacities worldwide.


Environments ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunsheng Fang ◽  
Liyuan Wang ◽  
Ju Wang

Ozone (O3) pollution has become one of the most challenging problems in China, and high O3 concentrations have been a major air quality issue in Changchun. Based on continuous observation data of surface ozone concentrations from ten automatic air monitoring stations and meteorological data from the meteorological bureau in Changchun, the temporal and spatial variations of the O3 concentration and its relationships with meteorological factors were analyzed by correlation analysis during the period of 2013–2017. The results showed the following: A single apex model of the annual mean O3 concentrations of the daily maximum 8 h average (MDA8) was found from the data for 2013 to 2017 in Changchun, with the highest MDA8 O3 concentrations in 2015 and a slight decline from then until 2017. The O3 concentrations in the suburban areas and the south of Changchun were higher than those downtown and north of the city. The seasonal variation of O3 concentrations was obvious, following the order summer > spring > autumn > winter, which was similar to the results of neighboring cities and provinces in Changchun. The days on which O3 concentrations exceeded the standard were concentrated in summer and spring, and the total number of ozone excess days was 91 days; the maximum number of ozone excess days was in 2015. The O3 concentration exceeded the standard in Changchun mainly in March–August, and its monthly mean value curve showed a bimodal type in which the highest values appeared in May and July, while the lowest values appeared in December. The diurnal pattern of ozone showed a single peak mode, and the peak value usually appeared at 14:00–16:00 while the minimum value appeared at 07:00–08:00. O3 concentrations in Changchun and the six selected pollutants CO, NO, NO2, NOx, PM10, and PM2.5 were negatively correlated. Higher temperature is a necessary synoptic condition for ozone pollution in Changchun: when the temperature rose, O3 concentrations increased significantly; further, O3 concentrations were negatively correlated with relative humidity and atmospheric pressure and were positively correlated with temperature and solar radiation. The O3 concentrations were highest when the wind scale approached 14~20 km/h and the wind direction was S. Combined with the research results in the surrounding areas of Changchun, it is indicated that there may be an ozone contribution from south of Changchun through long-range pollution transport and tropospheric subsidence.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (24) ◽  
pp. 12215-12231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. S. Stock ◽  
M. R. Russo ◽  
T. M. Butler ◽  
A. T. Archibald ◽  
M. G. Lawrence ◽  
...  

Abstract. We examine the effects of ozone precursor emissions from megacities on present-day air quality using the global chemistry–climate model UM-UKCA (UK Met Office Unified Model coupled to the UK Chemistry and Aerosols model). The sensitivity of megacity and regional ozone to local emissions, both from within the megacity and from surrounding regions, is important for determining air quality across many scales, which in turn is key for reducing human exposure to high levels of pollutants. We use two methods, perturbation and tagging, to quantify the impact of megacity emissions on global ozone. We also completely redistribute the anthropogenic emissions from megacities, to compare changes in local air quality going from centralised, densely populated megacities to decentralised, lower density urban areas. Focus is placed not only on how changes to megacity emissions affect regional and global NOx and O3, but also on changes to NOy deposition and to local chemical environments which are perturbed by the emission changes. The perturbation and tagging methods show broadly similar megacity impacts on total ozone, with the perturbation method underestimating the contribution partially because it perturbs the background chemical environment. The total redistribution of megacity emissions locally shifts the chemical environment towards more NOx-limited conditions in the megacities, which is more conducive to ozone production, and monthly mean surface ozone is found to increase up to 30% in megacities, depending on latitude and season. However, the displacement of emissions has little effect on the global annual ozone burden (0.12% change). Globally, megacity emissions are shown to contribute ~3% of total NOy deposition. The changes in O3, NOx and NOy deposition described here are useful for quantifying megacity impacts and for understanding the sensitivity of megacity regions to local emissions. The small global effects of the 100% redistribution carried out in this study suggest that the distribution of emissions on the local scale is unlikely to have large implications for chemistry–climate processes on the global scale.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lily Gouldsbrough ◽  
Ryan Hossaini ◽  
Emma Eastoe ◽  
Paul J. Young

<p>Warm summer temperatures provide ideal conditions for the occurrence of extreme ground level ozone pollution episodes. Given the well-established negative impacts of ozone on human and plant health, understanding and attributing these extreme events is of importance to the scientific and wider community, particularly as heatwaves may become more frequent due to climate change. Extreme Value Analysis provides a powerful and flexible framework in which to statistically model unusually large observed values of ozone extracted from historical data. Here, a temperature dependent Peaks-Over-Threshold method based upon the Generalised Pareto Distribution is used to carry out a regional comparison of extreme ozone pollution episodes within the UK. Our analysis uses surface ozone observations from the UK’s extensive Automatic Urban and Rural Network. The statistical model was used to quantify the frequency and magnitude of extreme ozone events, including a probabilistic assessment of exceeding UK public health thresholds, conditional on temperature. Return levels are provided for each monitoring site demonstrating the expected future projections of extreme ozone pollution events across the UK. We find that across UK rural background sites, return periods for a daily maximum 8-hr ozone level of 100 ug/m3 (a 'moderate' level of air pollution in the UK's Air Quality Index) range from 32-147 days, based on analysis of the data in the decade 2010-2019. Similarly, for urban background sites the range is 36-869 days. An analysis of the spatio temporal variability in UK ozone extremes, along with their temperature dependence, will be presented.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 4427-4461 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Canty ◽  
L. Hembeck ◽  
T. P. Vinciguerra ◽  
D. C. Anderson ◽  
D. L. Goldberg ◽  
...  

Abstract. Regulatory air quality models, such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality model (CMAQ), are used by federal and state agencies to guide policy decisions that determine how to best achieve adherence with National Ambient Air Quality Standards for surface ozone. We use observations of ozone and its important precursor NO2 to test the representation of the photochemistry and emission of ozone precursors within CMAQ. Observations of tropospheric column NO2 from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), retrieved by two independent groups, show that the model overestimates urban NO2 and underestimates rural NO2 under all conditions examined for July and August 2011 in the US Northeast. The overestimate of the urban to rural ratio of tropospheric column NO2 for this baseline run of CMAQ (CB05 mechanism, mobile NOx emissions from the National Emissions Inventory; isoprene emissions from MEGAN v2.04) suggests this model may under estimate the importance of interstate transport of NOx. This CMAQ simulation leads to a considerable overestimate of the 2 month average of 8 h daily maximum surface ozone in the US Northeast, as well as an overestimate of 8 h ozone at AQS sites during days when the state of Maryland experienced NAAQS exceedances. We have implemented three changes within CMAQ motivated by OMI NO2 as well as aircraft observations obtained in July 2011 during the NASA DISCOVER-AQ campaign: (a) the modeled lifetime of organic nitrates within CB05 has been reduced by a factor of 10, (b) emissions of NOx from mobile sources has been reduced by a factor of 2, and (c) isoprene emissions have been reduced by using MEGAN v2.10 rather than v2.04. Compared to the baseline simulation, the CMAQ run using all three of these changes leads to a considerably better simulation of the ratio of urban to rural column NO2, better agreement with the 2 month average of daily 8 h maximum ozone in the US Northeast, fewer number of false positives of an ozone exceedance throughout the domain, as well as an unbiased simulation of surface ozone at ground based AQS sites in Maryland that experienced an ozone exceedance during July and August 2007. These modifications to CMAQ may provide a framework for use in studies focused on achieving future adherence to specific air quality standards for surface ozone by reducing emission of NOx from various anthropogenic sectors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 880 (1) ◽  
pp. 012004
Author(s):  
H Mahidin ◽  
M T Latif ◽  
A Hamdan ◽  
J Salleh ◽  
D Dominick ◽  
...  

Abstract Sarawak Region of Malaysia is currently experiencing a high demand for capital needs such as transformation forest to plantations, economic development, and improving transportation systems. Those land cover changes will increase primary pollutant emissions and trigger surface O3 formation. Surface O3 is a secondary pollutant and a significant greenhouse gas contributing to climate change and declining air quality. In this study, variations in surface O3 concentrations at urban and suburban sites in Sarawak were explored using the Malaysian Department of Environment data spanning a two-year cycle (2018-2019). The primary aim of this study is to ascertain the variation of surface O3 concentrations reported at four monitoring stations in Sarawak, namely Kuching (SQ1) (Urban), Sibu (SQ2) (Suburban), Bintulu (SQ3) (Suburban), and Miri (SQ4) (Suburban). The study also analysed the relationship between O3 distribution and nitrogen oxides (NO and NO2). The findings showed that O3 concentrations observed in the region during the study period were lower than the maximum permissible value of 100 ppbv suggested by the Malaysian Ambient Air Quality Standard (2020). SQ4 (Miri) at suburban sites recorded the highest average surface O3 concentrations with an hourly average and daily maximum O3 concentration of 15.7 and 89.5 ppbv, respectively. Temperatures, UV exposure, and wind speed all impact the concentration of surface O3 in Sarawak. In all stations, concentrations of O3 were inversely linked with NO, NO2, and relative humidity (RH). This research will assist the relevant agency in forecast, monitor, and mitigate the level of O3 in the ambient environment, especially in the Sarawak Region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Han ◽  
Jane Liu ◽  
Lei Shu ◽  
Tijian Wang ◽  
Huiling Yuan

Abstract. Ozone pollution in China is influenced by meteorological processes on multiple scales. Using regression analysis and weather classification, we statistically assess the impacts of local and synoptic meteorology on daily variability in surface ozone in eastern China in summer during 2013–2018. In this period, summertime surface ozone in eastern China (20–42∘ N, 110–130∘ E) is among the highest in the world, with regional means of 73.1 and 114.7 µg m−3, respectively, in daily mean and daily maximum 8 h average. Through developing a multiple linear regression (MLR) model driven by local and synoptic weather factors, we establish a quantitative linkage between the daily mean ozone concentrations and meteorology in the study region. The meteorology described by the MLR can explain ∼43 % of the daily variability in summertime surface ozone across eastern China. Among local meteorological factors, relative humidity is the most influential variable in the center and south of eastern China, including the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta regions, while temperature is the most influential variable in the north, covering the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. To further examine the synoptic influence of weather conditions explicitly, six predominant synoptic weather patterns (SWPs) over eastern China in summer are objectively identified using the self-organizing map clustering technique. The six SWPs are formed under the integral influence of the East Asian summer monsoon, the western Pacific subtropical high, the Meiyu front, and the typhoon activities. On average, regionally, two SWPs bring about positive ozone anomalies (1.1 µg m−3 or 1.7 % and 2.7 µg m−3 or 4.6 %), when eastern China is under a weak cyclone system or under the prevailing southerly wind. The impact of SWPs on the daily variability in surface ozone varies largely within eastern China. The maximum impact can reach ±8 µg m−3 or ±16 % of the daily mean in some areas. A combination of the regression and the clustering approaches suggests a strong performance of the MLR in predicting the sensitivity of surface ozone in eastern China to the variation of synoptic weather. Our assessment highlights the importance of meteorology in modulating ozone pollution over China.


Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1862
Author(s):  
Libing Song ◽  
Jiming Jin

In this study, the crop environment resource synthesis maize (CERES-Maize) model was used to explore the effects of declining sunshine hours (SSH), decreasing daily maximum temperature (Tmax), and cultivar replacements on growth processes and yields of maize in Northern China, a principal region of maize production. SSH were found to decrease at 189 of 246 meteorological stations in the northern provinces of China over the period of 1994–2012, and a decrease in Tmax was also seen at many of these stations. The most significant decrease in these two climate variables occurred during June to September, a period for summer maize growth. For this study, seven crop field stations in the ShaanXi province, in the Guanzhong Plain, were selected, all of which showed a downward trend in SSH and Tmax over the period of 1994–2012. The CERES-Maize model was first calibrated and validated against yield observations for these stations over the same period, and the yield simulations matched very well with observations. The model was then driven by the detrended SSH and Tmax data, and the simulations were compared with those with a trend in these two input variables. The decline in SSH was found to reduce the maize yield by 8% on average over these stations due mostly to limited root growth, and the decline for shorter SSH reduced the yield more than that for longer SSH. Meanwhile, the decrease in higher Tmax increased the yield by extending the growth period, while the decrease in lower Tmax reduced the yield by lowering the thermal time. In addition, the observed yield showed a significant upward trend, and our modeling results indicate that this increase can be attributed mainly to the frequent cultivar replacements over our study period. The replaced cultivars usually had a longer growth period than the prior ones, which compensated for the yield loss due to fewer SSH. Net maize production decreased with the combined effects of the declines in SSH and Tmax on yields. This study quantifies the contribution of changes in climate and cultivars to maize growth processes and yields and provides strong insights into maize production under a complex dynamic climate system.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Zhang ◽  
Meiyun Lin ◽  
Andrew O. Langford ◽  
Larry W. Horowitz ◽  
Christoph J. Senff ◽  
...  

Abstract. The detection and attribution of high background ozone (O3) events in the southwestern U.S. is challenging but relevant to the effective implementation of the lowered National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS; 70 ppbv). Here we leverage intensive field measurements from the Fires, Asian, and Stratospheric TransportLas Vegas Ozone Study (FAST-LVOS) in MayJune 2017, alongside high-resolution simulations with two global models (GFDL-AM4 and GEOS-Chem), to pinpoint the sources of O3 during high-O3 events. We show stratospheric influence on four out of the ten events with daily maximum 8-hour average (MDA8) surface O3 above 65 ppbv in the greater Las Vegas region. While O3 produced from regional anthropogenic emissions dominates pollution in the Las Vegas Valley, stratospheric intrusions can mix with regional pollution to push surface O3 above 70 ppbv. GFDL-AM4 captures the key characteristics of deep stratospheric intrusions consistent with ozonesondes, lidar profiles, and co-located measurements of O3, CO, and water vapor at Angel Peak, whereas GEOS-Chem has difficulty simulating the observed features and underestimates observed O3 by ~ 20 ppbv at the surface. The two models also differ substantially during a wildfire event, with GEOS-Chem estimating ~ 15 ppbv greater O3, in better agreement with lidar observations. At the surface, the two models bracket the observed MDA8 O3 values during the wildfire event. Both models capture the large-scale transport of Asian pollution, but neither resolves some fine-scale pollution plumes, as evidenced from aerosol backscatter, aircraft, and satellite measurements. U.S. background O3 estimates from the two models differ by 5 ppbv on average and up to 15 ppbv episodically. Our multi-model approach tied closely to observational analysis yields process insights, suggesting that elevated background O3 may pose challenges to achieving a potentially lower NAAQS level (e.g., 65 ppbv) in the southwestern U.S.


2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 1456-1466 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhining Tao ◽  
Allen Williams ◽  
Ho-Chun Huang ◽  
Michael Caughey ◽  
Xin-Zhong Liang

Abstract Different cumulus schemes cause significant discrepancies in simulated precipitation, cloud cover, and temperature, which in turn lead to remarkable differences in simulated biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOC) emissions and surface ozone concentrations. As part of an effort to investigate the impact (and its uncertainty) of climate changes on U.S. air quality, this study evaluates the sensitivity of BVOC emissions and surface ozone concentrations to the Grell (GR) and Kain–Fritsch (KF) cumulus parameterizations. Overall, using the KF scheme yields less cloud cover, larger incident solar radiation, warmer surface temperature, and higher boundary layer height and hence generates more BVOC emissions than those using the GR scheme. As a result, the KF (versus GR) scheme produces more than 10 ppb of summer mean daily maximum 8-h ozone concentration over broad regions, resulting in a doubling of the number of high-ozone occurrences. The contributions of meteorological conditions versus BVOC emissions on regional ozone sensitivities to the choice of the cumulus scheme largely offset each other in the California and Texas regions, but the contrast in BVOC emissions dominates over that in the meteorological conditions for ozone differences in the Midwest and Northeast regions. The result demonstrates the necessity of considering the uncertainty of future ozone projections that are identified with alternative model physics configurations.


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