A measurement and model study on ozone characteristics in marine air at a remote island station and its interaction with urban ozone air quality in Shanghai, China

Yixuan Gu,Wei Gao,Hong Liao,Fengxia Yan,Jianming Xu,Fangfang He,Yuanhao Qu

doi:10.5194/acp-20-14361-2020

Abstract

Abstract. To understand the characteristics and changes of baseline ozone (O3) in oceanic air in eastern China, a 6-year measurement of O3 concentration was conducted from 1 January 2012 to 15 September 2017 at a remote offshore station located on Sheshan Island (SSI) near the megacity of Shanghai. The observed monthly mean O3 concentrations at SSI ranged from 33.4 to 61.4 ppbv during the study period, which were about 80 % and 12 % higher, respectively, than those measured at downtown and rural sites in Shanghai. Compared to the remarkable O3 increases observed at urban and rural sites in Shanghai, observed O3 concentrations at SSI exhibited statistically insignificant increasing changes (1.12 ppbv yr−1, α>0.10) during the observation period, suggesting less impacts of anthropogenic emissions on O3 levels in oceanic air. In addition, an insignificant decreasing change (−0.72 ppbv yr−1, α>0.10) was detected in O3 concentrations at SSI in September and October when the influence of regional transport was minimum throughout the year, providing a good proxy to study the baseline oxidation capacity of the oceanic atmosphere. City plumes from Shanghai usually carried higher levels of NOx, resulting in decreased O3 concentrations at SSI during southwesterly and westerly winds. However, In MAM (March–May) and JJA (June–August), due to the enhanced production of oxygenated volatile organic compounds, O3 could be continuously produced during daytime in aged city plumes, resulting in elevated O3 concentrations transported to SSI. The impacts of the offshore O3 on O3 levels in Shanghai are quantified during an easterly wind dominant episode (1–30 September 2014) using the WRF-Chem model (Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry). Sensitivity results suggest that O3 in the oceanic air inflows can lead to 20 %–30 % increases in urban O3 concentrations, which should be crucially considered in dealing with urban O3 pollution in large coastal cities like Shanghai.

Highlights

Ground-level ozone (O3) is a harmful photochemical oxidant detrimental to air quality, human health and land ecosystems (Yue and Unger, 2014; Monks et al, 2015; Li et al, 2019a)
We present the first relatively long and continuous measurements of O3 conducted on a remote offshore island (Sheshan Island, SSI) from January 2012 to September 2017 in eastern China
The observed O3 concentrations at SSI were inevitably influenced by regional transport depending on the prevailing winds in various seasons

Summary

Introduction

Ground-level ozone (O3) is a harmful photochemical oxidant detrimental to air quality, human health and land ecosystems (Yue and Unger, 2014; Monks et al, 2015; Li et al, 2019a). O3 pollution has drawn increasing attention in China, since O3 pollution is getting worse in spite of the implementation of the Chinese Clean Air Action Plan. Y. Gu et al.: A measurement and model study on ozone characteristics age (MDA8) O3 concentrations show increasing rates of 1– 3 ppb yr−1 in summer in megacities over eastern China from 2013 to 2017 (Li et al, 2019b). To address the underlying causes of the increasing O3 pollution has become an urgent issue that triggers lots of discussions based on observational and model studies worldwide (Yang et al, 2014; Lou et al, 2015; Fu et al, 2019)

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