Overview of the Mount Tai Experiment (MTX2006) in central East China in June 2006: studies of significant regional air pollution

Abstract

We conducted an intensive field campaign at the summit of Mt. Tai (36.26° N, 117.11° E, 1534 m above sea level), Shandong Province, located at the center of central East China, during the period 28 May to 30 June 2006, to study seasonal maxima of regional air pollution with respect to ozone (O₃) and aerosols. The specific objectives, campaign design, and major findings are summarized. High concentrations of O₃ and its precursors, and aerosols, were detected and studied in the context of annual variations. Most importantly, we identified that emissions from regional-scale open crop residue burning after the harvesting of winter wheat, together with photochemical aging, strongly increased the concentrations of O₃, aerosols, and primary pollutants in this month of year. Studies of in situ photochemical activity, regional source attribution of O₃, O₃–aerosol interactions, validation of satellite observations of tropospheric NO₂, behaviors of volatile organic compounds and organic/inorganic aerosol species, loss rates of black carbon (BC), and instrument inter-comparisons are also summarized. The observed BC levels must have a strong impact on the regional climate

Significant increase of summertime ozone at Mount Tai in Central Eastern China

“…Tai during June-August of 2014 and 2015. In addition, another set of 3-year measurements was carried out from March 2004 to May 2007, as an international joint effort between Japanese and Chinese scientists (Kanaya et al, 2013); monthly average O 3 data are taken from this work. As most of the measurements are available for the period of June-August each year, we focus on the summertime O 3 in this study.…”

“…Hence the impact of local anthropogenic emission should be small, and the data collected are believed to be regionally representative. Details of these sites have been described elsewhere (Site 1: Gao et al, 2005;Kanaya et al, 2013;Site 2: Guo et al, 2012;. For our data set, most of the measurements were taken at Site 1, and only the intensive campaign in 2014 took place at Site 2.…”

“…1) -a fast developing region facing severe air pollution. During daytime, the summit is well within the planetary boundary layer (PBL), and the site is therefore regionally representative of the region (Kanaya et al, 2013). Since 2003, several field measurement campaigns have been conducted at this site, with surface O 3 of major interest.…”

Atmospheric CO, O3, and SO2 Measurements at the Summit of Mt. Fuji during the Summer of 2013

“…Tai in China (Kanaya et al, 2013 and references therein), Mt. Happo in Japan (Kajii et al, 1998;Kato et al, 2002;Pochanart et al;, Tanimoto, 2009), Mt.…”

Observation of ozone enhancement in the lower troposphere over East Asia from a space-borne ultraviolet spectrometer

“…ities such as open crop residue burning (OCRB) may also have a significant effect on ozone pollution over the North China Plain (Fu et al, 2007;Kanaya et al, 2013). The inclusion of OCRB in the bottom-up inventory is currently a major research topic (Yamaji et al, 2010), although emissions of ozone precursors from agricultural activities have been difficult to quantify.…”