AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Characterization of Submicron Aerosols in a High Polluted City Nearby the Gorge of the Yellow River in Central China
QINGQING WANG, Yele Sun, Jie Li, Yong Chen, Yanyu Li, Institute of Atmospheric Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences
Abstract Number: 273 Working Group: Urban Aerosols
Abstract Although air pollution problem in megacities in China has been significantly improved as annual average PM2.5 in 2018 in Beijing was 51 µg/m3. It is still a serious problem in many smaller cities. Sanmenxia is located in Fen-Wei Plain, close to China's largest coal base and nearby the gorge of the Yellow river. The highly concentrated industries, especially coal industries, heavy traffic, and the typical terrain of the gorge, make Sanmenxia a highly polluted city. Besides, elevated point sources from industrial chimneys circulated to the ground by local atmospheric circulation, which also aggravated air pollution. Nonrefractory PM1 (NR-PM1) species including organic aerosol (Org), sulfate (SO4), nitrate (NO3), ammonium (NH4) and chloride (Chl) were measured at Sanmenxia Environmental Protection Bureau (34.794°N,111.171°E) by the ACSM at a time resolution of ~5 min from December 21, 2018 to January 21, 2019. High time resolution of online meteorological variables, as well as precursor gases, OC/EC, and trace elements were also collected at the site, aiming to characterize the pollution sources and evolution mechanisms of aerosol chemical composition. A long haze episode lasted for 16 days was observed with NR-PM1 = 76±33 µg/m3, PM2.5 = 180±89 µg/m3, indicating the severe polluted issue in Sanmenxia. During this episode, nitrate accounted for 32% of NR-PM1 and was the primary species for NR-PM1. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis of both the ACSM organic mass spectra data and all other aerosol species showed the following sources in Sanmenxia: industrial emission, coal combustion, traffic emission, biomass burning, industrial point sources, secondary species (sulfate + nitrate + ammonium + secondary organic aerosol), and dust. The primary two sources were secondary species and coal combustion.