Abstract. Through online observation and offline chemistry analysis of samples at
suburban, urban and industrial sites (NJU, PAES and NUIST, respectively) in
Nanjing, a typical polluted city in the Yangtze River Delta, we optimized the
aerosol light scattering estimation method, identified its influencing
factors and quantified the contributions of emission sources to aerosol
scattering. The daily average concentration of PM2.5 during the
sampling period (November 2015–March 2017) was 163.1±13.6 µg m−3 for the heavily polluted period, 3.8 and 1.6 times those for the
clean (47.9±15.8 µg m−3) and lightly polluted (102.1±16.4 µg m−3) periods, respectively. The largest increase in
PM concentration and its major chemical components was found at the size
range of 0.56–1.0 µm for the heavily polluted period, and the
contributions of nitrate and sulfate were the greatest in the 0.56–1.0 µm fraction (19.4 %–39.7 % and 18.1 %–34.7 %, respectively) for all the three
periods. The results indicated that the large growth of nitrate and sulfate
was one of the major reasons for the polluted periods. Based on
measurements at the three sites, the US Interagency Monitoring of Protected
Visual Environments (IMPROVE) algorithm was optimized to evaluate aerosol
scattering in eastern China. The light absorption capacity of organic carbon
(OC) was estimated to account for over half of the methanol-soluble organic
carbon (MSOC) at NJU and PAES, whereas the fraction was lower at NUIST.
Based on the Mie theory, we found that the high relative humidity (RH) could
largely enhance the light scattering effect of accumulation particles, but
it had few effects on the mixing state of particles. The scattering
coefficients of particles within the 0.56–1.0 µm range contributed the
most to the total scattering (28 %–69 %). The mass scattering efficiency
(MSE) of sulfate and nitrate increased with the elevated pollution level,
whereas a low MSE of organic matter (OM) was found for the heavily polluted
period, probably because a proportion of OM had only a light absorption
property. A coupled model of positive matrix factorization (PMF) and the Mie
theory was developed and applied for the source apportionment of aerosol
light scattering. Coal burning, industry and vehicles were identified as the
major sources of the reduced visibility in Nanjing, with an estimated
collective contribution at 64 %–70 %. The comparison between the clean and
polluted period suggested that the increased primary particle emissions from
vehicles and industry were the major causes of the visibility degradation in
urban and industrial regions, respectively. In addition, secondary aerosols
were a great contributor to the reduced visibility.