Investigation into the nocturnal ozone in a typical industrial city in North China Plain, China

Abstract

Ozone (O3) concentrations usually peak at midday by photochemical reactions and gradually decline after sunset due to chemical destruction and dry deposition. However, an increase in the frequency of elevated nocturnal ozone enhancement (NOE) and high nocturnal ozone value (HNOV) has been frequently observed in urban areas of eastern China, but the reasons are not well understood. In this study, taking a typical industrial city, ZiBo as a case study, we analyzed the trends, characteristics, and causes of the NOE and HNOV events in historical years by combining observations and model simulations. During the warm season (April–September) of 2017–2023, HNOV events are accompanied by low humidity, high temperature, large friction velocity, and a high boundary layer (52 days in total), whereas NOE events coincide with increases in humidity, wind speed, friction velocity, and boundary layer height (141 days in total). During the HNOV and NOE events, the nighttime average concentrations of Ox were 77 ± 7 and 12 ± 6 μg m−3 higher than the non-nocturnal O3 period, indicating enhanced atmospheric oxidizing capacity during nighttime. The modeling results indicate that both the HNOV and NOE events were mainly driven by vertical mixing and regional transport. We selected a typical period with high O3 pollution and frequent NOE and HNOV events to conduct the modeling study. Three typical nocturnal O3 events are identified: Case I was mainly driven by horizontal transport; while in the two subsequent cases, the vertical transport contribution was 80 μg m−3 h−1 (20:00 LT on June 21, 2021) and 35 μg m−3 h−1 (02:00 LT on June 26, 2021), respectively. Our study reveals that the O3 pollution in industrial cities has been extending to nighttime, primarily attributed to vertical mixing and horizontal transport within the boundary layer. This highlights the critical role of implementing regional joint control action to reduce primary emissions and eliminate residual ozone.