Analysis of Photochemical Characteristics and Sensitivity of Atmospheric Ozone in Nanjing in Summer

Abstract

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is mainly produced through a series of photochemical reactions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The reaction process presents complex non-linear relationships. In this work, datasets of atmospheric ozone and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) observed during the summer of 2018 in Nanjing were used. Combining with the framework for 0-D atmospheric model-master chemical mechanism (F0AM-MCM), the characteristics of photochemical reactions for ozone (O3) formation in Nanjing during the O3 episode days and non-episode days were investigated. The results showed that φ(O3) and φ(TVOCs) in the O3 episode days were 47.8×10-9 and 49.0×10-9, respectively, exceeding those in the non-episode days by factors of 1.8 and 1.6. Furthermore, F0AM, the empirical kinetic modeling approach (EKMA), and relative incremental reactivity (RIR) were utilized for the calculation of ozone chemical sensitivity. It was found that O3 formation in Nanjing was attributed to both VOCs and NOx limitation. In addition, the modeled ·OH and HO2 concentrations in the O3 episode days were 1.3 and 1.8 times higher than those in the non-episode days. The higher formation and loss rates of ·OH and HO2 were also found during O3 episode days. These findings reflected that the enhancements of atmospheric oxidation capacity resulted in increased production rates of O3, providing an explanation for the enhancements of O3 concentrations in Nanjing during the O3 episode days. The findings also improved the understanding of the O3 photochemical characteristics over Nanjing in the summer during the O3 episode days.