Model elucidating the sources and formation mechanisms of severe haze pollution over Northeast mega-city cluster in China

Abstract

Recent studies on regional haze pollution over China come up in general with strong variability of main causes of heavy polluted episodes, in linkage with local specificities, sources and pollution characteristics. This paper therefore aims at elucidating the main specific sources and formation mechanisms of observed strong haze pollution episodes over 1-15 November 2015 in Northeast region considered as one of biggest megacity clusters in China. The Northeast China mega-city cluster, including Heilong Jiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces, is adjacent to Russia in the north, Mongolian at the west, North Korea at east, and representing key geographical location in the regional and transnational air pollution issues in China due to the presence of heavy industries and intense economic activities. The present study, based on air quality monitoring, remote sensing satellite data and sensitivity experiments carried on the Nested Air Quality Prediction Modeling System (NAQPMS), quantitatively assesses the impact of meteorological conditions and potential contributions from regional chemical transport, intensive energy combustion, illegal emission and biomass burning emissions to PM concentration variation. The results indicate strong inversion occurrence at lower atmosphere with weak near-surface wind speed and high relative humidity, leading to PM concentration increase of about 30-50%. Intensive energy combustion (plausibly for heating activities) and illegal emission also significantly enhance the overall PM accumulation by 100-200 μg m (60-70% increase), against 75-100 μg m from the biomass burning under the northeast-southwest transport pathway, corresponding to a contribution of 10-20% to PM concentration increase. Obviously, stagnant meteorological conditions, energy combustion, illegal emission and biomass burning are main drivers of strong haze formation and spatial distribution over Northeast China megacity cluster. In clear, much effort on emission abatement at both local and regional scales is still an urgent imperative to overcome current critical haze pollution.

Multimorbidity Analysis of 13 Systemic Diseases in Northeast China

“…In addition, respiratory system diseases (ResS) had the highest weight in multimorbidity in the age group 0~17 years. This may be related to low respiratory immunity in children, large temperature differences in northeast China, and environmental pollution [33,34]. Thus, multimorbidity dominated by respiratory system diseases (ResS) should be the focus of attention given to young people.…”

Spatiotemporal Variations and Influencing Factors Analysis of PM2.5 Concentrations in Jilin Province, Northeast China

“…Severe haze episodes observed recently over Northeast China corresponded to proximately 2-3 times of the historical air pollution (Wang et al, 2014;Yang et al, 2017), especially during late autumn and over the long winter Fang et al, 2017;Ma et al, 2017). The proportion of area whose PM 2.5 concentrations exceeded the Grade II standard limit of 35 μg/m 3 (is equivalent to WHO Interim Target-1) increased annually in the past decade (Luo et al, 2017).…”

Analysis of NOx Pollution Characteristics in the Atmospheric Environment in Changchun City

“…Changes in concentrations of atmospheric pollutants such as NO x during special periods (such as during the Beijing Olympics) or during atmospheric pollution events might vary significantly [14]. Since 2013, there have been several serious air pollution events in Northeast China, and air pollution has been intensifying [15][16][17]. Thus, research on nitrogen oxides is crucial.…”