Vertical distributions of wintertime atmospheric nitrogenous compounds and the corresponding OH radicals production in Leshan, southwest China

Ground-based multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy(MAX-DOAS)observations were operated from 02 to 21 December 2018 in Leshan,southwest China,to measure HONO,NO_(2) and aerosol extinction vertical distributions,and these were the first MAX-DOAS measurement results in Sichuan Basin.During the measurement period,characteristic ranges for surface concentration were found to be 0.26-4.58 km^(−1) and averaged at 0.93 km^(−1) for aerosol extinction,0.49 to 35.2 ppb and averaged at 4.57 ppb for NO_(2) and 0.03 to 7.38 ppb and averaged at 1.05 ppb for HONO.Moreover,vertical profiles of aerosol,NO_(2) and HONO were retrieved from MAX-DOAS measurements using the Heidelberg Profile(HEIPRO)algorithm.By analysing the vertical gradients of pollutants and meteorological information,we found that aerosol and HONO are strongly localised,while NO_(2) is mainly transmitted from the north direction(city center direction).Nitrogen oxides such as HONO and NO_(2) are important for the production of hydroxyl radical(OH)and oxidative capacity in the troposphere.In this study,the averaged value of OH production rate from HONO is about 0.63 ppb/hr and maximum value of ratio between OH production from HONO and from(HONO+O_(3))is>93%before12:00 in Leshan.In addition,combustion emission contributes to 26%for the source of HONO in Leshan,and we found that more NO_(2) being converted to HONO under the conditions with high aerosol extinction coefficient and high relative humidity is also a dominant factor for the secondary produce of HONO.