Observations by Ground-Based MAX-DOAS of the Vertical Characters of Winter Pollution and the Influencing Factors of HONO Generation in Shanghai, China

Shiqi Xu,Xiangguang Ji,Hua Lin,Wenjing Su,Chengzhi Xing,Shanshan Wang,Qihou Hu,Cheng Liu,Wei Tan,Men Xia

doi:10.3390/rs13173518

Abstract

Analyzing vertical distribution characters of air pollutants is conducive to study the mechanisms under polluted atmospheric conditions. Nitrous acid (HONO) is a kind of crucial species in photochemical cycles. Exploring the influence and sources of HONO in air pollution at different altitudes offers some insights into the research of tropospheric oxidation chemistry processes. Ground-based multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) measurements were conducted in Shanghai, China, from December 2017 to March 2018 to investigate vertical distributions and diurnal variations of trace gases (NO2, HONO, HCHO, SO2, and water vapor) and aerosol extinction coefficient in the boundary layer. Aerosol and NO2 showed decreasing profile exponentially, SO2 and HCHO concentrations were observed relatively high values in the middle layer. SO2 was caused by industrial emissions, while HCHO was from secondary sources. As for HONO, below 0.82 km, the heterogeneous reactions of NO2 impacted on forming HONO, while in the upper layers, vertical diffusion might be the dominant source. The contribution of OH production from HONO photolysis at different altitudes was mainly controlled by the concentration of HONO. MAX-DOAS measurements characterize the vertical structure of air pollutants in Shanghai and provide further understanding for HONO formation, which can help deploy advanced measurement platforms of regional air pollution over eastern China.

Highlights

Over the past decades, people paid more and more attention to air pollution, since this problem did have multifarious devastating impacts on human health [1,2,3,4]
This study focuses on studying winter HONO sources and the contribution of OH production from HONO photolysis at different altitudes in Shanghai by analyzing the vertical nitrous acid distribution during the whole campaign
This paper described the diurnal variation and vertical distribution of trace gases (NO2, HONO, HCHO, SO2, and water vapor) and aerosol extinction of Shanghai based on in-situ MAX-DOAS measurements from December 2017 to March 2018, and characterized their vertical profiles retrieved using the HEIPRO algorithm

Summary

Introduction

People paid more and more attention to air pollution, since this problem did have multifarious devastating impacts on human health [1,2,3,4]. It is serious in China, including the Yangtze River Delta (YRD), it is the consequence of the fast-paced progress of the economy and industrialization [5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Previous studies showed that the concentration of HONO in winter is higher than that in summer [16]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion