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Surface ozone changes during the COVID-19 outbreak in China: An insight into the pollution characteristics and formation regimes of ozone in the cold season

Surface ozone changes during the COVID-19 outbreak in China: An insight into the pollution... The countrywide lockdown in China during the COVID-19 pandemic provided a natural experiment to study the characteristics of surface ozone (O3). Based on statistical analysis of air quality across China before and during the lockdown, the tempo-spatial variations and site-specific formation regimes of wintertime O3 were analyzed. The results showed that the O3 pollution with concentrations higher than air quality standards could occur widely in winter, which had been aggravated by the emission reduction during the lockdown. On the national scale of China, with the significant decrease (54.03%) in NO2 level from pre-lockdown to COVID-19 lockdown, the maximum daily 8-h average concentration of O3 (MDA8h O3) increased by 39.43% from 49.05 to 64.22 μg/m3. This increase was comprehensively contributed by attenuated NOx suppression and favorable meteorological changes on O3 formation during the lockdown. As to the pollution states of different monitoring stations, surface O3 responded oppositely to the consistent decreased NO2 across China. The O3 levels were found to increase in the northern and central regions, but decrease in the southern region, where the changes in both meteorology (e.g. temperature drops) and precursors (reduced emissions) during the lockdown had diminished local O3 production. The spatial differences in NOx levels generally dictate the site-specific O3 formation regimes in winter, with NOx-titration/VOCs-sensitive regimes being dominant in northern and central China, while VOCs-sensitive/transition regimes being dominant in southern China. These findings highlight the influence of NOx saturation levels on winter O3 formation and the necessity of VOCs emission reductions on O3 pollution controls. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry Springer Journals

Surface ozone changes during the COVID-19 outbreak in China: An insight into the pollution characteristics and formation regimes of ozone in the cold season

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Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022. Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
ISSN
0167-7764
eISSN
1573-0662
DOI
10.1007/s10874-022-09443-2
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Abstract

The countrywide lockdown in China during the COVID-19 pandemic provided a natural experiment to study the characteristics of surface ozone (O3). Based on statistical analysis of air quality across China before and during the lockdown, the tempo-spatial variations and site-specific formation regimes of wintertime O3 were analyzed. The results showed that the O3 pollution with concentrations higher than air quality standards could occur widely in winter, which had been aggravated by the emission reduction during the lockdown. On the national scale of China, with the significant decrease (54.03%) in NO2 level from pre-lockdown to COVID-19 lockdown, the maximum daily 8-h average concentration of O3 (MDA8h O3) increased by 39.43% from 49.05 to 64.22 μg/m3. This increase was comprehensively contributed by attenuated NOx suppression and favorable meteorological changes on O3 formation during the lockdown. As to the pollution states of different monitoring stations, surface O3 responded oppositely to the consistent decreased NO2 across China. The O3 levels were found to increase in the northern and central regions, but decrease in the southern region, where the changes in both meteorology (e.g. temperature drops) and precursors (reduced emissions) during the lockdown had diminished local O3 production. The spatial differences in NOx levels generally dictate the site-specific O3 formation regimes in winter, with NOx-titration/VOCs-sensitive regimes being dominant in northern and central China, while VOCs-sensitive/transition regimes being dominant in southern China. These findings highlight the influence of NOx saturation levels on winter O3 formation and the necessity of VOCs emission reductions on O3 pollution controls.

Journal

Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry – Springer Journals

Published: Mar 1, 2023

Keywords: Surface ozone; Nitrogen dioxide; COVID-19; Tempo-spatial variation; Formation regime; Winter

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