Abstract
Carbonaceous aerosol, one of the major components of atmospheric aerosols, significantly affects haze episodes, climate change, and human health. Northeastern China suffers severe air pollution, especially in some periods (e.g., the Spring Festival). However, studies on carbonaceous aerosols in typical northeast industrial cities (i.e., Changchun) are rare, limiting further comprehension of the atmospheric haze formation. In this study, we monitored the concentrations of carbonaceous aerosols (i.e., OC and EC) in Changchun during the Lunar New Year of 2018 (i.e., from Lunar 20 December to Lunar 20 January), and analyzed the temporal variation and source contributions via the HYbrid-Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model with the potential source contribution factor weights (PSCF) method. The daily concentrations of OC and EC were 9.00 ± 2.81 and 1.57 ± 0.46 µg m−3, respectively, and were significantly lower at nighttime than at the day during the Spring Festival. The concentrations during the major period (i.e., OC: 8.13 ± 2.93 µg m−3; EC: 1.47 ± 0.47 µg m−3 in festival days), including the Lunar Little New Year; the Lunar New Year’s Eve; New Year’s Day; Lunar 5 January, and the Spring Lantern Festival, were mainly from the northwestward with the wind speed of 4–6 m/s being lower than that of normal period (OC: 9.87 ± 2.46 µg m−3; EC: 1.67 ± 0.44 µg m−3) from the southeastward with a wind speed of 6–7 m/s. The direction of the airflow trajectory was mainly in local, northwestward, and northward, carrying particulate matter and gaseous pollutants. In major period, the daily concentration of atmospheric pollutants presented a bimodal trend, with peaks appearing regularly from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m., which might be related to traffic, cooking, and firecrackers. The OC/EC was greater than 2 during the whole period, indicating the generation of secondary organic aerosols (i.e., SOC). This study was essential to understand the formation mechanisms of severe pollution episodes and develop control measures for the industrial cities of Northeast China during the Spring Festival.
Highlights
The complex impacts of carbonaceous aerosols (e.g., elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC)) on air quality, human health, and climate change are of increasing concern in current environmental research [1,2,3]
Based on a case study in Changchun, the objective of this study is to reveal the emissions characteristics, spatiotemporal distribution, and pollutant sources of carbonaceous aerosols during the Spring Festival in a typical industry-dominated and haze-prone region, using the HYbrid-Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model and potential source contribution factor weights (PSCF) method
We explored the distribution of potential sources of PM2.5, which was considered as the primary pollutant during research period, based on the PSCF method
Summary
The complex impacts of carbonaceous aerosols (e.g., elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC)) on air quality, human health, and climate change are of increasing concern in current environmental research [1,2,3]. The different terrain, population density, socioeconomic status, and industrial distribution lead to a complex mixture of various aerosol types [11,12] which increases the difficulty of studying source analysis and transformation mechanism of carbonaceous aerosols. Systematic scientific research on carbonaceous aerosols are necessary to carry out to clarify the emission characteristics, spatiotemporal distribution, and source analysis in typical periods of haze in cities Carbonaceous aerosols from the same region in different periods, especially haze-episode periods (i.e., the Chinese Lunar New Year), have distinguishable behaviors in terms of formation mechanisms, chemical conversions, and extinction, limiting the application of regional air quality models [13,14,15].
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