ALBERT

Description: This study investigated the impacts of seasonal and regional variability in biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) on surface ozone over the Pearl River delta (PRD) region in southern China in 2010 with the WRF–Chem/MEGAN (Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with Chemistry/Model of Emissions of Gases and Aerosols from Nature) modeling system. Compared to observations in the literature and this study, MEGAN tends to predict reasonable BVOC emissions in summer, but may overestimate isoprene emissions in autumn, even when the local high-resolution land-cover data and observed emission factors of BVOCs from local plant species are combined to constrain the MEGAN BVOC emissions model. With the standard MEGAN output, it is shown that the impact of BVOC emissions on the surface ozone peak is ~3 ppb on average with a maximum of 24.8 ppb over the PRD region in autumn, while the impact is ~10 ppb on average, with a maximum value of 34.0 ppb in summer. The areas where surface ozone is sensitive to BVOC emissions are different in autumn and in summer, which is primarily due to the change of prevailing wind over the PRD; nevertheless, in both autumn and summer, the surface ozone is most sensitive to the BVOC emissions in the urban area because the area is usually VOC-limited. Three additional experiments concerning the sensitivity of surface ozone to MEGAN input variables were also performed to assess the sensitivity of surface ozone to MEGAN drivers, and the results reveal that land cover and emission factors of BVOCs are the most important drivers and have large impacts on the predicted surface ozone.

Description: Controlled bench scale pulverized coal combustion studies were performed, demonstrating that inorganic particles play a critical role as carriers of organic species. Two commonly-used aerosol mass spectrometry techniques were applied to characterize fine particle formation during coal combustion. It was found that the organic species in coal combustion aerosols have mass spectra similar to those generated by biomass combustion. Ambient measurements in Shanghai, China confirm the presence of these species in approximately 29–38% of the sampled particles. With the absence of major biomass sources in the Shanghai area, it is suggested that coal combustion may be the main source of these particles. This work indicates there is a significant potential for incorrect apportionment of coal combustion particles to biomass burning sources using widely adopted mass spectrometry techniques.

Description: Climate factors such as aridity significantly influence soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) stocks in terrestrial ecosystems. Further, soil composition plays an important role in driving changes of soil C and N stocks at regional scale. However, it remains uncertain whether such changes result from the variation of different soil particle-size factions or the C and N concentrations in those fractions. We examined the distribution of total C and N in both bulk soil and different soil particle-size fractions, including sand (53-2000 μm), silt (2-53 μm) and clay (

Description: The optical properties and chemical composition of PM1.0 (particulate with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 1.0 μm) particles in a suburban environment (Huairou) near the mega-city Beijing were measured during the HOPE-J3A (Haze Observation Project Especially for Jing-Jin-Ji Area) field campaign. The campaign covered the period November 2014 to January 2015 during the winter coal heating season. The average and standard deviations for the extinction, scattering, absorption coefficients, and the aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) at λ = 470 nm during the measurement period were 201 ± 240, 164 ± 202, 37 ± 43 Mm-1, and 0.80 ± 0.08, respectively. The mean mass scattering (MSE) and absorption (MAE) efficiencies were 4.77 ± 0.01 and 0.87 ± 0.03 m2g-1, respectively. Highly time-resolved air pollution episodes clearly show the dramatic evolution of the PM1.0 size distribution, extensive optical properties (extinction, scattering, and absorption coefficients) and intensive optical properties (single scattering albedo and complex refractive index) during haze formation, development and decline. Time periods were classified into three different pollution levels (clear, slightly polluted, and polluted) for further analysis. It was found that: (1) The diurnal patterns of the aerosol extinction, scattering, absorption coefficients, and SSA differed for the three pollution classes. (2) The real and imaginary part of complex refractive index (CRI) increased, while the SSA decreased from clear to polluted days. (3) The relative contributions of organic and inorganic species to observed aerosol composition changed significantly from clear to polluted days: the organic mass fraction decreased (50 to 43 %) while the proportion of sulfates, nitrates, and ammonium increased strongly (34 to 44 %). (4) The fractional contribution of chemical components to extinction coefficients was calculated by using the modified IMPROVE algorithm. Organic mass was the largest contributor (58 %) to the total extinction of PM1.0. When the air quality deteriorated, the change of the relative contribution of sulfate aerosol to the total extinction was small, but the contribution of nitrate aerosol increased significantly (from 17 % on clear days to 23 % on polluted days). (5) The observed mass scattering efficiencies increased consistently with the pollution extent, however, the observed mass absorption efficiencies increased consistently with increasing mass concentration in slightly pollution conditions, but decreased under polluted conditions.

Description: Controlled bench scale pulverized coal combustion studies were performed that demonstrate that inorganic particles play a critical role as carrier of organic species. Two commonly-used aerosol mass spectrometry techniques have been applied to characterize fine particle formation during coal combustion. It was found that the organic species in coal combustion aerosols have similar mass spectra as those from biomass combustion. Ambient measurements in Shanghai, China confirm the presence of these species in approximately 36~42% of the sampled particles. With the absence of major biomass sources in the Shanghai area, it is suggested that coal combustion may be the main source of these particles. This work indicates there is a significant potential for incorrect apportionment of coal combustion particles to biomass burning sources using widely adopted mass spectrometry techniques.

Description: In this study, the BVOC emissions in November 2010 over the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in southern China have been estimated by the latest version of a Biogenic Volatile Organic Compound (BVOC) emission model (MEGAN v2.1). The evaluation of MEGAN performance at a representative forest site within this region indicates MEGAN can estimate BVOC emissions reasonably well in this region except overestimating isoprene emission in autumn for reasons that are discussed in this manuscript. Along with the output from MEGAN, the Weather Research and Forecasting model with chemistry (WRF-Chem) is used to estimate the impacts of BVOC emissions on surface ozone in the PRD region. The results show BVOC emissions increase the daytime ozone peak by ~3 ppb on average, and the max hourly impacts of BVOC emissions on the daytime ozone peak is 24.8 ppb. Surface ozone mixing ratios in the central area of Guangzhou-Foshan and the western Jiangmen are most sensitive to BVOC emissions BVOCs from outside and central PRD influence the central area of Guangzhou-Foshan and the western Jiangmen significantly while BVOCs from rural PRD mainly influence the western Jiangmen. The impacts of BVOC emissions on surface ozone differ in different PRD cities, and the impact varies in different seasons. Foshan and Jiangmen being most affected in autumn, result in 6.0 ppb and 5.5 ppb increases in surface ozone concentrations, while Guangzhou and Huizhou become more affected in summer. Three additional experiments concerning the sensitivity of surface ozone to MEGAN input variables show that surface ozone is more sensitive to landcover change, followed by emission factors and meteorology.

Description: As the climate changes, it is important to understand the effects on the environment. Changes in wildland fire risk are an important example. A stochastic lattice-based wildland fire spread model was proposed by Boychuk et al. (2007), followed by a more realistic variant (Braun and Woolford, 2013). Fitting such a model to data from remotely sensed images could be used to provide accurate fire spread risk maps, but an intermediate step on the path to that goal is to verify the model on data collected under experimentally controlled conditions. This paper presents the analysis of data from small-scale experimental fires that were digitally video-recorded. Data extraction and processing methods and issues are discussed, along with an estimation methodology that uses differential equations for the moments of certain statistics that can be derived from a sequential set of photographs from a fire. The interaction between model variability and raster resolution is discussed and an argument for partial validation of the model is provided. Visual diagnostics show that the model is doing well at capturing the distribution of key statistics recorded during observed fires.

Description: In this study, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system is used to simulate the ozone (O3) episodes during the Program of Regional Integrated Experiments of Air Quality over the Pearl River Delta, China, in October 2004 (PRIDE-PRD2004). The simulation suggests that O3 pollution is a regional phenomenon in the PRD. Elevated O3 levels often occurred in the southwestern inland PRD, Pearl River estuary (PRE), and southern coastal areas during the 1-month field campaign. Three evolution patterns of simulated surface O3 are summarized based on different near-ground flow conditions. More than 75% of days featured interaction between weak synoptic forcing and local sea-land circulations. Integrated process rate (IPR) analysis shows that photochemical production is the dominant contributor to O3 enhancement from 09:00 to 15:00 LST (local standard time) in the atmospheric boundary layer over most areas with elevated O3 occurrence in the mid-afternoon. The simulated ozone production efficiency is 2–8 O3 molecules per NOx molecule oxidized in areas with high O3 chemical production. Precursors of O3 originating from different source regions in the central PRD are mixed during transport to downwind rural areas during nighttime and early morning, where they then contribute to the daytime O3 photochemical production. Such close interactions among precursor emissions, transports, and O3 photochemical production result in the regional O3 pollution over the PRD. Sensitivity studies suggest that O3 formation is volatile organic compound-limited in the central inland PRD, PRE, and surrounding coastal areas with less chemical aging (NOx/NOy〉0.6), but is NOx-limited in the rural southwestern PRD with photochemically aged air (NOx/NOy

Description: Nitric acid (HNO3) or nitrate (NO3−) is the dominant sink for reactive nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2) in the atmosphere. In many Chinese cities, HNO3 is becoming a significant contributor to acid deposition. In the present study, we measured nitrogen (N) and oxygen (O) isotopic composition of NO3− in 113 precipitation samples collected from Guangzhou City in southern China over a two-year period (2008 and 2009). We attempted to better understand the spatial and seasonal variability of atmospheric NOx sources and the NO3− formation pathways in this N-polluted city in the Pearl River Delta region. The δ15N values of NO3− (versus air N2) ranged from −4.9 to +10.1‰, and averaged +3.9‰ in 2008 and +3.3‰ in 2009. Positive δ15N values were observed throughout the year, indicating the anthropogenic contribution of NOx emissions, particularly from coal combustion. Different seasonal patterns of δ15N-NO3− were observed between 2008 and 2009, which might reflect different human activities associated with the global financial crisis and the intensive preparations for the 16th Asian Games. Nitrate δ18O values (versus Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water) varied from +33.4 to +86.5‰ (average +65.0‰ and +67.0‰ in 2008 and 2009, respectively), a range being lower than those reported for high latitude and polar areas. Sixteen percent of δ18O values was observed lower than the expected minimum of +55‰ at our study site. This was likely caused by the reaction of NO with peroxy radicals; peroxy radicals can compete with O3 to convert NO to NO2, thereby donate O atoms with much lower δ18O value than that of O3 to atmospheric NO3−. Our results highlight that the influence of human activities on atmospheric chemistry can be recorded by the N and O isotopic composition of atmospheric NO3− in a N-polluted city.

Description: This study investigated the air pollution characteristics of synoptic-scale circulation in the Beijing megacity, and provided quantitative evaluation of the impacts of circulation patterns on air quality during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Nine weather circulation types (CTs) were objectively identified over the North China region during 2000–2009, using obliquely rotated T-mode principal component analysis (PCA). The resulting CTs were examined in relation to the local meteorology, regional transport pathways, and air quality parameters, respectively. The FLEXPART-WRF model was used to calculate 48-h backward plume trajectories for each CT. Each CT was characterized with distinct local meteorology and air mass origin. CT 1 (high pressure to the west with a strong pressure gradient) was characterized by a northwestern air mass origin, with the smallest local and southeasterly air mass sources, and CT 6 (high pressure to the northwest) had air mass sources mostly from the north and east. On the contrary, CTs 5, 8, and 9 (weak pressure field, high pressure to the east, and low pressure to the northwest, respectively) were characterized by southern and southeastern trajectories, which indicated a greater influence of high pollutant emission sources. In turn, poor air quality in Beijing (high loadings of PM10, BC, SO2, NO2, NOx, O3, AOD, and low visibility) was associated with these CTs. Good air quality in Beijing was associated with CTs 1 and 6. The average visibilities (with ±1σ) in Beijing for CTs 1 and 6 during 2000–2009 were 18.5 ± 8.3 km and 14.3 ± 8.5 km, respectively. In contrast, low visibility values of 6.0 ± 3.5 km, 6.6 ± 3.7 km, and 6.7 ± 3.6 km were found in CTs 5, 8, and 9, respectively. The mean concentrations of PM10 for CTs 1, 6, 5, 8, and 9 during 2005–2009 were 90.3 ± 76.3 μg m−3, 111.7 ± 89.6 μg m−3, 173.4 ± 105.8 μg m−3, 158.4 ± 90.0 μg m−3, and 151.2 ± 93.1 μg m−3, respectively. Analysis of the relationship between circulation pattern and air quality during the emission control period suggests that CTs are the primary drivers of day-to-day variations in pollutant concentrations over Beijing and its vicinity. During the Olympics period, the frequency of CT 6 was twice that of the mean in August from 2000 to 2009. This CT had northerly transport pathways and favorable meteorological conditions (e.g. frequent precipitation) for clean air during the Olympics. Assuming that relationships between CTs and air quality parameters in the same season are fixed in different years, the relative contributions of synoptic circulation to decreases in PM10, BC, SO2, NO2, NOx, CO, and horizontal light extinction during the Olympics were estimated as 19 ± 14%, 18 ± 13%, 41 ± 36%, 12 ± 7%, 10 ± 5%, 19 ± 11%, and 54 ± 25%, respectively.