Recent Progress in Atmospheric Chemistry Research in China: Establishing a Theoretical Framework for the “Air Pollution Complex”

Atmospheric chemistry research has been growing rapidly in China in the last 25 years since the concept of the“air pollution complex”was first proposed by Professor Xiaoyan TANG in 1997.For papers published in 2021 on air pollution(only papers included in the Web of Science Core Collection database were considered),more than 24000 papers were authored or co-authored by scientists working in China.In this paper,we review a limited number of representative and significant studies on atmospheric chemistry in China in the last few years,including studies on(1)sources and emission inventories,(2)atmospheric chemical processes,(3)interactions of air pollution with meteorology,weather and climate,(4)interactions between the biosphere and atmosphere,and(5)data assimilation.The intention was not to provide a complete review of all progress made in the last few years,but rather to serve as a starting point for learning more about atmospheric chemistry research in China.The advances reviewed in this paper have enabled a theoretical framework for the air pollution complex to be established,provided robust scientific support to highly successful air pollution control policies in China,and created great opportunities in education,training,and career development for many graduate students and young scientists.This paper further highlights that developing and low-income countries that are heavily affected by air pollution can benefit from these research advances,whilst at the same time acknowledging that many challenges and opportunities still remain in atmospheric chemistry research in China,to hopefully be addressed over the next few decades.

MAX-DOAS and in-situ measurements of aerosols and trace gases over Dongying,China:Insight into ozone formation sensitivity based on secondary HCHO

This study presents a comprehensive overview of the atmospheric pollutants including Sulfur dioxide(SO_(2)),Nitrogen dioxide(NO_(2)),Formaldehyde(HCHO),Particulate Matter PM;PM_(10):diameter≤10μm,and PM_(2.5):diameter≤2.5μm,and Ozone(O_(3)),over Dongying(Shandong Province)from March-April 2018 and September-October 2019 by employing ground-based Multiple Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy(MAX-DOAS)observations along with the in-situ measurements attained by the national air quality monitoring platform.The concentrations of SO_(2)and NO_(2)were under the acceptable level,while both PM_(2.5),and PM_(10)were higher than the safe levels as prescribed by national and international air quality standards.The results depict that 21%of the total observation days were found to be complex polluted days(PM_(2.5)>35μg/m^(3) and O_(3)>160μg/m^(3)).The secondary HCHO was used for accurate analysis of O_(3)sensitivity.A difference of 11.40%and 10%during March-April 2018 and September-October 2019 respectively in O_(3)sensitivity was found between HCHO_(total)/NO_(2)and HCHO_(sec)/NO_(2).The results indicate that primary HCHO have significant contribution in HCHO.O_(3)formation predominantly remained to be in VOC-limited and transitional regime during March-April 2018 and September-October 2019 in Dongying.These results imply that concurrent control of both NO_(x) and VOCs would benefit in ozone reductions.Additionally,the criteria pollutants(PM,SO_(2),and NO_(2))depicted strong correlations with each other except for O_(3)for which weak correlation coefficient was obtained with all the species.This study will prove to be baseline for designing of air pollution control strategies.

Continuous and comprehensive atmospheric observations in Beijing:a station to understand the complex urban atmospheric environment

Due to profound impact on climate and human health,air quality has attracted attention from all levels of the civil society.The key step in the provision of required tools for the society to tackle the complex air quality problem is to characterize it in a comprehensive manner with a long-term perspective.Here,we describe a continuous and comprehensive observation station and its accompanying state-ofthe-art instrumentation that was established to investigate the complex urban atmospheric environment in a rapidly developing Chinese Megacity.The station,located in downtown Beijing,aims to study air quality by identifying the major atmospheric pollutants and key processes determining their formation and loss mechanisms.A few hundreds of parameters are continuously measured with the state-of-the-art instruments,including trace gas concentrations,aerosol particle size distributions,and mass concentrations,covering aerosol particle chemical composition from molecules to micrometer-sized aerosol particles.This produced long-term,comprehensive big data with around 1�10^(11)bytes per year.In this paper,we provide an overview on the facilities of the station,the instrumentation used,the workflow of continuous observations and examples of results from 2018 to 2019 and a basis for establishing a modern long-term,comprehensive atmospheric urban observation station in other megacities.