Investigating the Changes in Air Pollutant Emissions over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region in February from 2014 to 2019 through an Inverse Emission Method

In recent years,China has implemented several measures to improve air quality.The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(BTH)region is one area that has suffered from the most serious air pollution in China and has undergone huge changes in air quality in the past few years.How to scientifically assess these change processes remain the key issue in further improving the air quality over this region in the future.To evaluate the changes in major air pollutant emissions over this region,this paper employs ensemble Kalman filtering(EnKF)for integrating the national ground monitoring pollutant observation data and the Nested Air Quality Prediction Modeling System(NAQPMS)simulation data to inversely estimate the emission rates of SO_(2),NOX,CO,and primary PM_(2.5)over BTH region in February from 2014 to 2019.The results show that SO_(2),NOX,CO,and primary PM_(2.5)emissions in the BTH region decreased in February from 2014 to 2019 by 83%,37%,41%,and 42%,while decreases in Beijing during this period were 86%,67%,59%,and 65%,respectively.Compared with the prior emission inventory,the inversion emission inventory reduces the uncertainty of multi-pollutant simulation in the BTH region,with simulated root mean square errors of the monthly average concentrations of SO_(2),NOX,PM_(2.5),and CO reduced by 41%,30%,31%,and 22%,respectively.The average uncertainties of SO_(2),NOX,PM_(2.5),and CO inversion emissions in2014-19 are±14.03%yr^(-1),±28.91%yr^(-1),±126.15%yr^(-1),and±43.58%yr^(-1).Compared with the uncertainty of MEIC emission,the uncertainties of all species changed by+2%yr^(-1),-2%yr^(-1),-26%yr^(-1),and-4%yr^(-1),respectively.The spatial distribution results illustrate that air pollutant emissions are mainly distributed over the eastern and southern BTH regions.The spatial gap between the inversion emissions and MEIC emissions was further closed in 2019 compared to 2014.The results of this paper can provide a new reference for assessing changes in air pollution emissions over the BTH region in recent years and validating a bottom-up emission inventory.

The Impact of the Numbers of Monitoring Stations on the National and Regional Air Quality Assessment in China During 2013-18

China national air quality monitoring network has become the core data source for air quality assessment and management in China.However,during network construction,the significant change in numbers of monitoring sites with time is easily ignored,which brings uncertainty to air quality assessments.This study aims to analyze the impact of change in numbers of stations on national and regional air quality assessments in China during 2013-18.The results indicate that the change in numbers of stations has different impacts on fine particulate matter(PM_(2.5))and ozone concentration assessments.The increasing number of sites makes the estimated national and regional PM_(2.5) concentration slightly lower by 0.6−2.2μg m^(−3) and 1.4−6.0μg m^(−3) respectively from 2013 to 2018.The main reason is that over time,the monitoring network expands from the urban centers to the suburban areas with low population densities and pollutant emissions.For ozone,the increasing number of stations affects the long-term trends of the estimated concentration,especially the national trends,which changed from a slight upward trend to a downward trend in 2014−15.Besides,the impact of the increasing number of sites on ozone assessment exhibits a seasonal difference at the 0.05 significance level in that the added sites make the estimated concentration higher in winter and lower in summer.These results suggest that the change in numbers of monitoring sites is an important uncertainty factor in national and regional air quality assessments,that needs to be considered in long-term concentration assessment,trend analysis,and trend driving force analysis.