Abstract. The study of atmospheric nitrous acid (HONO), which is the primary source of OH radicals, is crucial with respect to understanding atmospheric photochemistry and heterogeneous chemical processes. Heterogeneous NO2 chemistry under haze conditions has been identified as one of the missing sources of HONO on the North China Plain, and also produces sulfate and nitrate. However, controversy exists regarding the various proposed HONO production mechanisms, mainly regarding whether SO2 directly takes part in the HONO production process and what roles NH3 and the pH value play. In this paper, never before seen explosive HONO production was reported and evidence was found – for the first time in field measurements during fog (usually with 4< pH <6) and haze episodes under high relative humidity (pH ≈4) – that NH3 was the key factor that promoted the hydrolysis of NO2, leading to the explosive growth of HONO and nitrate under both high and relatively lower pH conditions. The results also suggest that SO2 plays a minor or insignificant role in HONO formation during fog and haze events, but was indirectly oxidized upon the photolysis of HONO via subsequent radical mechanisms. Aerosol hygroscopicity significantly increased with rapid inorganic secondary aerosol formation, further promoting HONO production as a positive feedback. For future photochemical and aerosol pollution abatement, it is crucial to introduce effective NH3 emission control measures, as NH3-promoted NO2 hydrolysis is a large daytime HONO source, releasing large amounts of OH radicals upon photolysis, which will contribute largely to both atmospheric photochemistry and secondary aerosol formation.

Water vapor supersaturation, as one of the most important environmental parameters during the formation of clouds or fogs, cannot be directly measured, and few studies have been carried out to estimate it in the ambient activation process. In this study, a new method to estimate the water vapor supersaturation based on the inverse application of κ‐Köhler theory is proposed. Aerosol hygroscopic parameter κ, dry particle size distributions, and wet droplet size distributions were employed and a comparison of predicted droplet number concentration with the measurement results was made to obtain the effective supersaturation during the activation process. Using this method, we acquired the supersaturations varying from 0.01% to 0.05% in a fog episode observed in the North China Plain. In this fog episode, both hydrated unactivated droplets and activated droplets play a part in the total detected droplet number concentrations with the unactivated droplets' ratio decreasing with size. The sensitivity study was also made to evaluate the effects of droplet and aerosol hygroscopic measurement errors on the supersaturation ratio estimation. Water vapor supersaturation obtained with this method can be regarded as an effective value and can be further applied to cloud analysis in the future. This method is only based on conventional measurements of aerosol and droplets and does not rely on any other data, which makes it flexible and easy to perform. Calculated supersaturations and critical diameters can also deepen the understanding of ambient activation process and corresponding interactions between aerosol and droplet characteristics.

Large uncertainties exist when estimating radiative effects of ambient black carbon (BC) aerosol. Previous studies about the BC aerosol radiative forcing mainly focus on the BC aerosols' mass concentrations and mixing states, while the effects of BC mass size distribution (BCMSD) were not well considered. In this paper, we developed a method of measuring the BCMSD by using a differential mobility analyzer in tandem with an Aethalometer. A comprehensive method of multiple charging corrections was proposed and implemented in measuring the BCMSD. Good agreement was obtained between the BC mass concentration integrated from this system and that measured in the bulk phase, demonstrating the reliability of our proposed method. Characteristics of the BCMSD and corresponding radiative effects were studied based on a field measurement campaign conducted in the North China Plain by using our own measurement system. Results showed that the BCMSD had two modes and the mean peak diameters of the modes were 150 and 503 nm. The BCMSD of the coarser mode varied significantly under different pollution conditions with peak diameter varying between 430 and 580 nm, which gave rise to significant variation in aerosol bulk optical properties. The direct aerosol radiative forcing was estimated to vary by 8.45 % for different measured BCMSDs of the coarser mode, which shared the same magnitude with the variation associated with assuming different aerosol mixing states (10.5 %). Our study reveals that the BCMSD as well as its mixing state in estimating the direct aerosol radiative forcing matters. Knowledge of the BCMSD should be fully considered in climate models.

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