Variation of temporal and spatial patterns of NO2 in Beijing using OMI and mobile DOAS

Abstract

Control policies such as “odd-and-even license plate rule” were implemented by the Chinese government to restrict traffic and suspend factory production in Beijing and neighboring cities during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. We use ozone monitoring instrument (OMI), mobile differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS), and multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) to measure the variation of the spatial and temporal patterns of NO2 column densities from October 24, 2014 to November 22, 2014. It is found that the NO2 column densities during the episode of control policies are significantly lower than those during other periods, and the emission flux of NO2 calculated by mobile DOAS is also lower than the results from other periods. Some daily low NO2 column densities occur with the northwest wind direction. We then compare the relationship between OMI and mobile DOAS NO2 column density observations, and the results of mobile DOAS are approximately 2.7 times larger than the OMI values. The largest discrepancy occurs in the northern part of Beijing city. In other parts, the two instruments have a better correlation coefficient (R 2) of 0.61. The low NO2 column densities that occur during the episode of control policies are affected by the control policies as well as meteorological conditions.