Relationships of ozone formation sensitivity with precursors emissions, meteorology and land use types, in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, China

Abstract

Due to the influences of precursors emissions, meteorology, geography and other factors, ozone formation sensitivity (OFS) is generally spatially and temporally heterogeneous. This study characterized detailed spatial and temporal variations of OFS in Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) from 2012 to 2016 based on OMI satellite data, and analyzed the relationships of OFS with precursors emissions, meteorology and land use types (LUTs). From 2012 to 2016, the OFS tended to be NOx-limited in GBA, with the value of FNR (HCHO/NO2) increasing from 2.04 to 2.22. According to the total annual emission statistics of precursors, NOx emissions decreased by 33.1% and VOCs emissions increased by 35.2% from 2012 to 2016, directly resulting in OFS tending to be NOx-limited. The Grey Relation Analysis results show that total column water (TCW), surface net solar radiation (SSR), air temperature at 2 m (T2) and surface pressure (SP) are the top four meteorological factors with the greatest influences on OFS. There are significant positive correlations between FNR and T2, SSR, TCW, and significant negative correlations between FNR and SP. In GBA, the OFS tends to be NOx-limited regime in wet season (higher T2, SSR, TCW and lower SP) and VOCs-limited regime in dry season (lower T2, SSR, TCW and higher SP). The FNR displays obvious gradient variations on different LUTs, with the highest in “Rural areas”, second in “Suburban areas” and lowest in “Urban areas”.