Simulated aging processes of black carbon and its impact during a severe winter haze event in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

Abstract

Black carbon (BC) can mitigate or worsen air pollution by perturbing meteorological conditions. BC aging processes strongly influence the evolution of the particle size, concentration, and optical properties of BC, which determine its influence on meteorology. Here, we use the online coupled Weather Research and Forecasting-Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model to quantify the role of BC aging processes, including physical processes (PP) and absorption enhancement (AE), in causing BC-induced meteorological changes and their associated feedbacks to PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter) and O3 concentrations during a severe haze event in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region during 21–27 February 2014. Our results show that, compared to those from the simulation without PP, the simulated near-surface BC concentration and BC mass loading in the BTH region decreased by 6.6% and 12.1%, respectively, when PP were included. PP increased the proportion of large BC (particle diameter greater than 0.312 μm) below 1000 m from 28 to 33% to 59–64% in the BTH region. When both PP and AE were included in the simulation, the reduction in PBL height due to the BC-PBL interaction was 116.3 m (20.7%), compared to reductions of 75.7 m (13.5%) without AE and 66.6 m (11.9%) without PP and AE. However, during this haze event, anomalous northeasterly winds were produced by the direct radiative effect of BC, which further affected aerosol mixing and transport. Due to their combined impacts on multiple meteorological factors, the direct radiative effects of BC without PP and AE, without AE, and with PP and AE increased the surface concentrations of PM2.5 by 8.3 μg m−3 (by 6.1% relative to the mean value), 6.1 μg m−3 (4.5%) and 9.6 μg m−3 (7.0%), respectively, but decreased the surface O3 concentrations by 2.8 ppbv (7.4%), 4.0 ppbv (9.0%) and 5.0 ppbv (10.8%) on average in the BTH region during 21–27 February 2014.