Evaluation of the Influence between Local Meteorology and Air Quality in Beijing Using Generalized Additive Models

Kun Hou,Xia Xu

doi:10.3390/atmos13010024

Abstract

Previous studies have confirmed the inextricable connection between meteorological factors and air pollutants. This study presents the complex nonlinear relationship between meteorological variables and four major air pollutants under high-concentration air pollution in Beijing. The generalized additive model combined with marginal effects is used for quantitative analysis. After controlling the confounding factors such as long-term trends, seasonality and spatio-temporal deviation, the final fitting results exhibit that temperature, relative humidity and visibility are the most significant meteorological variables associating with PM2.5 concentration, and the marginal effect reaches 80%, −23% and 270%, respectively. Temperature and relative humidity are the most significant variables for SO2, and the marginal effect reaches 15% and 7%. The most significant variables for O3 are temperature and solar radiation, with marginal effect of up to 70% and 8%. Atmospheric pressure and temperature results in a positive effect on CO, and the marginal effect can reach 18% and 80%. All these indicate that local meteorological variables are a significant driving factor for air quality in Beijing. Other variables, such as wind speed, visibility, and precipitation, display some influence on air pollutants, but have less explanatory power in the model. Overall, our study provides a better understanding of the relationship between local meteorological variables and air quality, as well as an insight into how climate change affects air quality.

Highlights

It is well known that air quality can be influenced by meteorological factor variables in the atmosphere [1,2,3]
We found that local meteorological factors could affect the variation of PM2.5, SO2, O3 and CO concentrations, and the influence was different in Beijing
The final fitting results exhibit that temperature, relative humidity and visibility are the most significant meteorological variables associated with PM2.5 concentration, and the marginal effect reaches 80%, −23% and 270%, respectively

Summary

Introduction

It is well known that air quality can be influenced by meteorological factor variables in the atmosphere [1,2,3]. Limited by external objective experimental conditions, previous studies on air quality and meteorological variables have mainly focused on the stage of low air pollution concentration [1]. The increased scrutiny of air quality suggests that many aspects of the meteorological variables associated with air pollution remain difficult to understand, especially during periods of high pollution. Meteorological parameters are intrinsically linked, leading to strong interdependence These linkages make the task of isolating the effects of individual parameters highly complex [1]. Previous studies have shown that meteorological factors such as low temperature, atmospheric pressure, relative humidity and solar radiation are associated with the concentration of particulate matter [11,12,13,14], sulfur dioxide [15,16], and ozone [17].

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion