Abstract
Abstract. The measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was carried out at the summit of Mount Tai, located in the center of the Central East China (CEC) region, in June 2006 as part of the Mount Tai Experiment 2006 (MTX2006), which focused on the ozone and aerosol chemistry in the region. Temporal variations of simple VOCs between 2 June and 28 June revealed the characteristics of an aged air mass with minimum local influence. A comparison of VOCs observed at Mount Tai with other Chinese sites revealed relatively similar VOC levels to remote sites and, as expected, a lower level compared to more polluted sites. However, relatively high acetylene and benzene levels at Mount Tai were evidently indicated from comparison with normalized VOC profile by ethane suggested for Beijing. Owing to a shift in boundary layer height, we observed considerable differences between daytime and nighttime VOC mixing ratios. This suggests that the site potentially has a very useful characteristic of being able to measure regional polluted air and the free troposphere regional background air quality. Influence of emissions from biomass burning in the region was evidently found to be extensive during the first half of the campaign (2–15 June), using fire spot data coupling with backward trajectory analysis. Agricultural residue burning was suggested as the primary source of emissions elucidated by the slope of the correlation plot between CH3Cl and CO obtained during the first half of the campaign.
Highlights
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an important ingredient along with the presence of nitrogen oxides (NOx =NO+NO2 ) and sunlight in the photochemical production of surface O3
VOC measurements were performed at the summit of Mount
VOCs mixing ratios observed at the site revealed fluctuations with similar trends which is a characteristic of air masses with an insignificant local influence but rather regional emission impact
Summary
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an important ingredient along with the presence of nitrogen oxides (NOx =NO+NO2 ) and sunlight in the photochemical production of surface O3. Despite a great understanding of China’s urban air pollution, information regarding VOC mixing ratios in rural and remote environments in China, where approximately 80% of population lives, is still limited to a few sites. VOC measurement using the canister sampling method were carried out at the observatory on the summit of Mount Tai (36.26◦ N, 117.11◦ E, 1534 m above sea level, located in the middle of CEC), in Shangdong province as part of the MTX 2006. During the campaign (2–28 June 2006), whole ambient air samples were compressed using a Teflon bellows pump (Iwaki, BA-106TN) and collected every day at approximately 14:00 LT into 6-L type canisters provided by Entech (Silonite) and Hewlett Packard (SilcoCan) These canisters are coated with fused silica allowing VOCs to remain stable for long periods of time.
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