The impact of aerosol–radiation interactions on the effectiveness of emission control measures

Bibliographic Data

ID15545308
AuthorsMi Zhou (0000-0002-9067-1101, Peking University), Lin Zhang (0000-0001-5966-3827, Peking University, corresponding author), Dan Chen (0000-0003-4240-4604, corresponding author), Yu Gu (0009-0005-9748-9555, University of California, Los Angeles), Tzung‐May Fu (0000-0002-8556-7326, Peking University), Tzung-May Fu, Meng Gao (0000-0002-8657-3541, Harvard University), Yuanhong Zhao (0000-0002-5134-1257, Peking University), Xiao Lu (0000-0003-1175-4687, Peking University), Bin Zhao (0000-0002-6206-2018, University of California, Los Angeles)
Year2018
Volume14
Issue2
Pages024002-024002
Publication date2018-11-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
PublisherIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/aaf27d
OpenAlexW2900538715
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited32

Temporary emission control measures in Beijing and surrounding regions have become a prevailing practice to ensure good air quality for major events (e.g. the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit on 5–11 November 2014) and to mitigate the severity of coming pollution episodes. Since PM _2.5 affects meteorology via aerosol–meteorology interactions, a question arises how these interactions may impact the response of PM _2.5 to emission reductions and thus the effectiveness of emission control measures. Here we use the coupled meteorology-chemistry model WRF-Chem to investigate this issue with focus on aerosol–radiation interactions (ARI) for the APEC week and three more polluted episodes over North China. We find a quadratic relationship between PM _2.5 concentration changes due to emission reductions and PM _2.5 levels, instead of an approximately linear response in the absence of ARI. The ARI effects could only change the effectiveness of emission control by 6.7% during APEC in Beijing, but reach 21.9% under more polluted conditions. Our results reveal that ARI can strongly affect the attribution of PM _2.5 variability to emission changes and meteorology, and is thus important for assessing the effectiveness of emission control measures

Aerosol · Air quality index · Atmospheric sciences · Beijing · China · Climatology · Geography · Meteorology · Physics · Air Quality and Health Impacts · Atmospheric aerosols and clouds · Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols · Environmental Science · Pollution