Seasonal Variations of Atmospheric Pollution and Air Quality in Beijing

Abstract

Abstract:New ambient air quality standards were released in 2012 and implemented in 2013 with real time monitoring data publication of six atmospheric pollutants: particulate matter (PM)2.5, PM10, O3, SO2, NO2 and CO. According to the new standards, Beijing began to publicize real-time monitoring data of 35 monitoring stations in 2013. In this study, real time concentrations of all six atmospheric pollutants of all 35 monitoring stations were collected from September 2014 to August 2015 to investigate the spatial and temporal pattern of the air quality and atmospheric pollutants. By comparing the annual and seasonal variations of all six pollutants' concentrations, it was found that particulate matter, especially PM2.5, is still the major contributor to the deterioration of air quality in Beijing. Although the NO2 and O3 concentrations of some stations were still high under certain circumstances, their contributions to air quality index (AQI) were not comparable to those of PM2.5 and PM10. SO2 and CO concentrations have dropped to well below the qualification standards. Winter and autumn were the most polluted seasons for all pollutants except O3, whose concentrations are higher in summer. South and southeast stations were the most polluted compared with the rest of the stations, especially for particulate matter. Wind profile analysis with heavy pollution situations indicates that low speed southwest or east wind situations have the higher possibility of heavy pollution, suggesting that it is highly possible that long-range transportation of air pollutants from south or east neighboring provinces played an important role in the worsening air conditions in Beijing. OPEN ACCESSAtmosphere 2015, 6 1754

Street-scale air quality modelling for Beijing during a winter 2016 measurement campaign

“…Additionally, in China, the rapid decrease in emissions of major air pollutants over recent years needs to be accounted for (Sun et al, 2018;Zheng et al, 2018). This reduction in emissions has followed the nationwide implementation of a number of clean air policies since 2013 as part of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) and more locally through the Beijing Action Plan (Ni et al, 2018;Cheng et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019). Overall, emissions in Beijing of SO 2 , NO x , VOCs and PM 2.5 are reported to have decreased by 84 %, 43 %, 42 % and 55 % between 2013 and 2017 (Cheng et al, 2019).…”

“…This reduction in emissions has followed the nationwide implementation of a number of clean air policies since 2013 as part of the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (APPCAP) and more locally through the Beijing Action Plan (Ni et al, 2018;Cheng et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019). Overall, emissions in Beijing of SO 2 , NO x , VOCs and PM 2.5 are reported to have decreased by 84 %, 43 %, 42 % and 55 % between 2013 and 2017 (Cheng et al, 2019). These emission reductions were estimated by Cheng et al (2019), using the technology-based model framework of the Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC), and are in good agreement with independent satellite-derived emission trends (Liu et al, , 2017.…”

Effects of Strong East Asian Cold Surges on Improving the Air Quality over Mainland China

“…In recent years, severe winter air pollution episodes or resultant low visibility events frequently occur in mainland China and have brought about serious impacts on air and ground traffic, human health, and the economy over China. Air pollution problems are receiving unprecedented attention in China [5][6][7].…”

First Assessment of NOx Sources at a Regional Background Site in North China Using Isotopic Analysis Linked with Modeling

“…37 EC is a primary pollutant, which originates exclusively from the incomplete combustion of carbon-containing material, such as fossil fuels and biomass. 38 The use of K + as a tracer of biomass burning has been established, 39 while SO 4 2− results from the transformation of SO 2 , which is mostly produced from industrial or domestic coal combustion in China. 40 There was a relatively strong correlation between SO 4 2− and NO 3 − in winter and spring when large amounts of coal were consumed for heating, further implying that NO 3 − in the two seasons originated from coal combustion.…”