Atmospheric Pollution Control Effect of Key Cities in Inner Mongolia in 2014

APEC conference was held in Beijing during November 3- 12,2014. Hohhot City and Baotou City fall into the peripheral key air pollution control cities in the ＂ Beijing- Tianjin- Hebei＂ region. Inner Mongolia government adopted powerful pollution control measures in the period of the conference. According to pollutant concentration data and meteorological data etc. in the course of the event and the same period of last year,the atmospheric pollution variations and control effect were discussed in this study. The results showed that during October 1- 25,2014,there were 16 days with air pollution in Hohhot City and 15 days with air pollution in Baotou City,respectively increasing by 8% and 34% compared with the same period of 2013,and the concentration of particulate matter was also higher than that of last year. During October 22- 24,2014,Hohhot and Baotou cities were polluted persistently. The variation features of hourly concentration of main pollutants PM（10） and PM2. 5were similar to those in the same period of 2013. That is,the pollutant concentration reached the maximum from 21：00 to 23：00,and the minimum appeared from 15： 00 to 19： 00 in the next day. In the course of the event,the concentration of particulate matter in the two cities stared to reduce greatly on October 26. From October 26 to November 13,there were no days with air pollution in Hohhot City,decreasing by 100% compared with the same period of 2013; there were five days with air pollution in Baotou City,and the numbers of days with slight,moderate and severe pollution reduced by 37%,100% and67% respectively compared with the same period of last year. The persistent air pollution from October 22 to the first 10 days of November was related to unfavorable meteorological conditions,and the meteorological condition in the same period of 2014 was even worse. In the course of the event,the Inner Mongolia Government adopted air pollution control measures around October 25 and began to adopt some powerful pollution control measures on November 1. As a result,air pollution in key cities has been controlled effectively. This event showed that urban atmospheric pollution problem can be resolved,and we should take an optimistic attitude towards this matter.

Terahertz assessment of the atmospheric pollution during the first-ever red alert period in Beijing

Haze or smog episodes, which are characterized by the presence of particulate matter at diameters less than 2.5 μm （PM2.5）, have attracted increasing attention during the past few decades [ 1 ]. PM2.5 has adverse effects on human respiratory health as well as on air visibility [2,3]. In the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei （BTH） region of China, haze has become especially serious in recent years because of industrial expansion and traffic-related emissions [4,5] （http：//news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-01/07/c_134987525.htm; http：// news.cenews.com.cn/html/2016-01/07/content_38614.htm）. To protect public health, the first-ever red alert for smog in China was issued by the Beijing municipal environmental protection bureau （MEPB）,

Seasonal characteristics and provenance of organic aerosols in the urban atmosphere of Liaocheng in the North China Plain:Significant effect of biomass burning

To better understand the seasonal characteristics of urban organic aerosol(OA)in the North China Plain(NCP),PM2.5 samples in the urban atmosphere of Liaocheng were collected and analyzed.The molecular distribution of the organic markers in the urban atmosphere of Liaocheng reveals that n-alkanes(39.3%)was the most abundant species all year round,followed by saccharides(28.2%),phthalic acids(Ph,20.8%),biogenic secondary organic aerosol(BSOA)tracers(9.4%),and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon(PAHs,2.3%).PM2.5,organic carbon(OC),elemental carbon(EC),and primary organic markers exhibit the highest concentrations in winter,due largely to the increased biomass burning and coal combustion for house heating in local and surrounding regions.However,the concentration and relative abundance of BSOA are significantly higher in summer than other seasons,induced by the more favorable meteoro-logical conditions that would promote the emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds(BVOCs)and the secondary production of BSOA.The ratios of OC/EC and 3-methyl-1,2,3-butanetricarboxylic acid to cis-pinic acid plus cis-pinonic acid(MBTCA/(PA+PNA)are higher in the warm seasons than those in the cold seasons,indicating that the oxidation of OA is sensitive to air temperature.Compared to 2017,the concentration level of PAHs during wintertime decreased by 40.8%,confirming that the stringent regulation of coal burning is effective.The highest concentration of high molecular weight(HMW)n-alkanes and three anhydrosugars in winter,and the close correlation of levoglucosan with HMW n-al-kanes suggests that the impact of biomass burning was more significant in winter.The same seasonal characteristic of the ratios of high-/low-NO_(x) products with NO_(x) and the strong correlation of high-/low-NO_(x) products with levoglucosan indicate that the formation of isoprene SOA(SOA1)tracers was signif-icantly influenced by anthropogenic emissions.The molecular compositions,the distributions of fire spots,backward trajectories of air masses,and correlation analysis suggest that air pollution events in spring were primarily resulted from biomass burning and secondary oxidation,while pollution events in winter were largely driven by the increased combustion sources,and promoted aqueous secondary formation.Our results suggest that the reduction of biomass and coal combustion should be taken into account to improve the urban air quality in the NCP.

Variations and drivers of aerosol vertical characterization after clean air policy in China based on 7-years consecutive observations

Understanding the aerosol vertical characterization is of great importance to both climate and atmospheric environment. This study investigated the variations of aerosol profiles over eight regions of interest in China after clean air policy(2013-2019) and discussed the drivers of the vertical aerosol structure, using observations from active satellite measurements(CALIPSO). From the annual variation, the amplitude of extinction coefficient profiles showed a decreasing trend with fluctuations, and the maximum was 0.21 km-1in BeijingTianjin-Hebei(JJJ). For regions suffered from air pollution, the variation was greatest below 0.45 km, while it was between 1-1.5 km for Sichuan Basin. The correlation coefficient between the relative humidity(RH) and the extinction coefficient indicated that the increase of RH inhibited the decrease of the extinction coefficient in the Yangtze River Delta. In most regions, the main aerosol subtypes were polluted dust and polluted continental, but they were coarser in JJJ and North West. The frequency of concurrency of dust and polluted dust aerosols decreased in JJJ, but polluted continental aerosols occurred more frequently. Further, the aerosol extinction coefficient profiles under different pollution conditions showed that it changed most during heavy pollution periods in JJJ, especially in 2017, with a significant aerosol loading between700 and 1200 m. The atmospheric reanalysis data revealed that the weak convergence at low level and the divergence at high level supported the upward transport of aerosols in 2017. Overall, the differences in divergence allocation, RH, and wind filed were the main meteorological drivers.