Rising surface ozone in China from 2013 to 2017: A response to the recent atmospheric warming or pollutant controls?

Li, Mengmeng; Wang, Tijian; Shu, Lei; Qu, Yawei; Xie, Min; Liu, Jane; Wu, Hao; Kalsoom, Umme

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2020.118130

Cited by 43 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Zhao et al, 2013). Since the enactment of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in 2013, the Chinese government has taken drastic measures to reduce the emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), nitrogen oxides (NO x ) and primary PM 2.5 , leading to significant decreases in sulfate and overall PM 2.5 concentrations in cities (Silver et al, 2018;Li et al, 2021a;. Meanwhile, the nitrogen / sulfur (N/S) ratio in PM 2.5 increased significantly, and nitrate became the main component of PM 2.5 (16 %-45 %) during haze episodes, despite a more than 20 % reduction in the concentrations of its precursor NO x (Shao et al, 2018;Wen et al, 2018;Zhai et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A confounding factor is that, for most cities in China, the production of O 3 is usually limited by VOCs (Xie et al, 2014;Dong et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2010). The control of NO x emissions has therefore resulted in an increase of surface O 3 concentrations in recent years (Li et al, 2021a;Kalsoom et al, 2021), implying complex impacts on nitrate formation. Li et al (2021a) and examined the influencing factors on the surface O 3 trends in China from 2013 to 2017 using regional chemical models.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NOx emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Zhang

Yao

et al. 2021

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Nitrate is an increasingly important component of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Chinese cities. The production of nitrate is not only related to the abundance of its precursor, but it is also supported by the atmospheric photochemical oxidants, raising a new challenge for the current emission control actions in China. This paper uses comprehensive measurements and a regional meteorology–chemistry model with optimized mechanisms to establish the nonlinear responses between particulate nitrate and the emission controls of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in the megalopolises of China. Nitrate is an essential component of PM2.5 in eastern China, accounting for 9.4 %–15.5 % and 11.5 %–32.1 % of the PM2.5 mass for the warm and cold seasons. The hypothetical NOx emission reduction scenarios (−10 % to −80 %) during summer–autumn result in almost linearly lower PM2.5 by −2.2 % in Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) and −2.9 % in Yangtze River Delta (YRD) per 10 % reduction of NOx emissions, whereas they lead to a rather complicated response of PM components in winter. Wintertime nitrate is found to increase by +4.1 % in BTH and +5.1 % in YRD per 10 % reduction of NOx emissions, with nearly unchanged nitric acid (HNO3) and higher dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5) intermediate products produced from the increased atmospheric oxidant levels. An inflexion point appears at 30 %–50 % NOx emission reduction, and a further reduction in NOx emissions is predicted to cause −10.5 % reduction of nitrate for BTH and −7.7 % for YRD per 10 % reduction of NOx emissions. In addition, the 2012–2016 NOx control strategy actually leads to no changes or even increases of nitrate in some areas (8.8 % in BTH and 14.4 % in YRD) during winter. Our results also emphasize that ammonia (NH3) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are effective in controlling nitrate pollution, whereas decreasing the sulfur dioxide (SO2) and NOx emissions may have counterintuitive effects on nitrate aerosols. This paper helps understand the nonlinear aerosol and photochemistry feedbacks and defines the effectiveness of proposed mitigations for the increasingly serious nitrate pollution in China.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NOx emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Zhang

Yao

et al. 2021

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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“…The model statistical evaluations show a MB of −3.66, −1.14, 4.7 and 18.32 μg m −3 , and NMB of −9.92, −6.46, 16.47 and 7.72% for PM2.5, SO2, NO2 and O3 in Period I, and a relatively larger MB of −27.31, −11.65, 1.27 and −39.01 μg m −3 , and NMB of −29.82, −28.11, 2.40 and −31.05% in Period II, respectively (Table 3). The uncertainty in emissions data, the absence of secondary organic aerosol in MOSAIC aerosol chemistry or the simulated wind errors may be responsible for the larger atmospheric chemical biases in winter, which has been extensively discussed in some studies (Zhao et al, 2016;Li et al, 2021a).…”

Section: Model Weather and Chemical Validationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA), including sulfate (SO4 2-), nitrate (NO3 -) and ammonium (NH4 + ) account for 30-60% of the total fine particulate matter (PM2.5) mass during haze events in China (Huang et al, 2014a;Zhao et al, 2013). Since the enactment of the Air Pollution Action Plan in 2013, the Chinese government has taken drastic measures to reduce the emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and primary PM2.5, leading to significant decreases in sulfate and overall PM2.5 concentrations in cities (Silver et al, 2018;Li et al, 2021a;Wang et al, 2017). Meanwhile, the nitrogen/sulfur (N/S) ratio in PM2.5 increased significantly and nitrate had been the main component of PM2.5 (16-45%) during haze episodes, despite a more than 20% reduction in the concentrations of its precursor NOx (Shao et al, 2018;Wen et al, 2018;Zhai et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A confounding factor is that, for most cities in China, the production of O3 is usually limited by VOCs (Liu et al, 2010). The control of NOx emission has therefore resulted in an increase of O3 concentrations in recent years (Li et al, 2021a;Li et al, 2019a;Kalsoom et al, 2021), implying complex impacts on nitrate formation. Some simulations thought that the NOx emission increase in 2005-2012 resulted in an increase of nitrate by 3.4% yr −1 in eastern China (Geng et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2013), and the following NOx emission control resulted in a decrease of nitrate by 3-14% (Wang et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NOx emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Li¹,

Zhang²,

Wang³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Nitrate is an increasingly important component of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Chinese cities. The production of nitrate is not only related to the abundance of its precursor, but also supported by atmospheric photochemical oxidants. The control of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions may thereby lead to nonlinear changes of nitrate concentrations, raising a new challenge to the current emission control actions in China. This paper uses comprehensive measurements and a regional meteorology-chemistry model with optimized mechanisms to establish the nonlinear responses between particulate nitrate and NOx emission controls in the megalopolises of China. Nitrate is an essential component of PM2.5 in eastern China, accounting for 9.4–15.5 % and 11.5–32.1 % of the PM2.5 mass for the warm and cold seasons. The hypothetical NOx emission reduction scenarios (−10 %~−80 %) during summer-autumn result in almost linearly lower PM2.5 by −2.65 % in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) and −2.79 % in Yangtze River Delta (YRD) per 10 % cut of NOx emissions, whereas they increase the oxidant levels and lead to a rather complicated response of PM components in winter. Wintertime nitrate is found to increase by 4.28 % in BTH and 4.60 % in YRD, with higher dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5) intermediate products produced from increased ozone introduced by lower NOx emissions. An inflexion point appears at 40–50 % NOx emission reduction, and a further cut in NOx emission is predicted to cause −8.74 % reduction of nitrate for BTH and −10.59 % for YRD per 10 % cut of NOx emissions. In addition, the 2012–2016 NOx control strategy actually leads to no change or even increase of nitrate in some areas (8.82 % in BTH and 14.41 % in YRD) during winter. This paper helps understand the nonlinear aerosol and photochemistry feedbacks, and defines the effectiveness of proposed mitigations for the increasingly serious nitrate pollution in China.

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Narrowing in the differences of urban and non-urban surface ozone levels in summers of the Northern Hemisphere

Han

Zhang

Liu

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Rising surface ozone in China from 2013 to 2017: A response to the recent atmospheric warming or pollutant controls?

Cited by 43 publications

References 83 publications

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO<sub>x</sub> emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO<sub>x</sub> emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO<sub>x</sub> emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Narrowing in the differences of urban and non-urban surface ozone levels in summers of the Northern Hemisphere

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Rising surface ozone in China from 2013 to 2017: A response to the recent atmospheric warming or pollutant controls?

Cited by 43 publications

References 83 publications

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Narrowing in the differences of urban and non-urban surface ozone levels in summers of the Northern Hemisphere

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Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO<sub>x</sub> emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO<sub>x</sub> emission controls in the megalopolises of China

Nonlinear responses of particulate nitrate to NO<sub>x</sub> emission controls in the megalopolises of China