Sources of black carbon during severe haze events in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region using the adjoint method

Abstract

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region in China has been frequently suffering from severe haze events (observed daily mean surface fine particulate matter PM2.5 concentrations larger than 150 μg m−3) partially caused by certain types of large-scale synoptic patterns. Black carbon (BC), as an important PM2.5 component and a primarily emitted species, is a good tracer for investigating sources and formation mechanisms leading to severe haze pollutions. We apply GEOS-Chem model and its adjoint to quantify the source contributions to BC concentrations at the surface and at the top of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) during typical types of severe haze events for April 2013–2017 in BTH. Four types of severe haze events, mainly occurred in December–January-February (DJF, 62.3%) and in September–October-November (SON, 26.3%), are classified based on the associated synoptic weather patterns using principal component analysis. Model results reasonably capture the daily variations of BC measurements at three ground sites in BTH. The adjoint method attributes BC concentrations to emissions from different source sectors and from local versus regional transport at the model spatial and temporal resolutions. By source sectors, the adjoint method attributes the daily BC concentrations during typical severe haze events (in winter heating season) in Beijing largely to residential emissions (48.1–62.0%), followed by transportation (16.8–25.9%) and industry (19.1–29.5%) sectors. In terms of regionally aggregated source influences, local emissions in Beijing (59.6–79.5%) predominate the daily surface BC concentrations, while contributions of emissions from Beijing, Hebei, and outside BTH regions are comparable to the daily BC concentrations at the top of PBL (~200–400 m). Our adjoint analyses would provide a scientific support for joint regional and targeted control policies on effectively mitigating the particulate pollutions when the dominant synoptic weather patterns are predicted.