期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2021
卷号:118
期号:10
页码:1
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2015797118
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Surface ozone is a severe air pollution problem in the North China Plain, which is home to 300 million people. Ozone concentrations are highest in summer, driven by fast photochemical production of hydrogen oxide radicals (HO x ) that can overcome the radical titration caused by high emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) from fuel combustion. Ozone has been very low during winter haze (particulate) pollution episodes. However, the abrupt decrease of NO x emissions following the COVID-19 lockdown in January 2020 reveals a switch to fast ozone production during winter haze episodes with maximum daily 8-h average (MDA8) ozone concentrations of 60 to 70 parts per billion. We reproduce this switch with the GEOS-Chem model, where the fast production of ozone is driven by HO x radicals from photolysis of formaldehyde, overcoming radical titration from the decreased NO x emissions. Formaldehyde is produced by oxidation of reactive volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which have very high emissions in the North China Plain. This remarkable switch to an ozone-producing regime in January–February following the lockdown illustrates a more general tendency from 2013 to 2019 of increasing winter–spring ozone in the North China Plain and increasing association of high ozone with winter haze events, as pollution control efforts have targeted NO x emissions (30% decrease) while VOC emissions have remained constant. Decreasing VOC emissions would avoid further spreading of severe ozone pollution events into the winter–spring season.
关键词:wintertime ozone ; air quality ; haze season ; China ; emission control