Characteristics and mechanisms of photochemical pollution in typical urban areas under different meteorological clusters

LIU Ying-ying; CHEN Sai-sai; LUAN He-run; LIN Zhou-yue; NYIXIA Tsring; YUAN Yue-fu; WEI Wei

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China Environmental Science ›› 2025, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (5) : 2413-2422.

Characteristics and mechanisms of photochemical pollution in typical urban areas under different meteorological clusters

LIU Ying-ying^1,2, CHEN Sai-sai^1,2, LUAN He-run³, LIN Zhou-yue^1,2, NYIXIA Tsring⁴, YUAN Yue-fu⁴, WEI Wei^1,2

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Abstract

This paper studied the characteristics and formation mechanisms of local photochemical pollution in Beijing during summer. Firstly, based on the meteorological observations, we obtained four typical meteorological clusters (M1~M4) based on the meteorological observations by using the K-means clustering algorithm and found the significant O₃ pollution difference among M1~M4. Then, under 2021 emissions of this city, we further simulated the local photochemical evolution of Beijing urban plumes respectively for four meteorological clusters, via a 0-D box model with the MCM (v3.3.1). The simulation results showed the daytime-averaged net O₃ production rate was 7.91×10^-9(M1), 7.58×10^-9(M2), 7.18×10^-9(M3), 3.55×10^-9(M4)·h^-1, but O₃ formation & loss pathways were very similar. O₃ formation was in the VOCs-limited regime, but its sensitivity to VOCs apparently decreased from M1 to M4. However, the simulated HCHO and CH₃ CHO had a little differences between various meteorological conditions, as well as their production rates and formation & loss pathways. The linear response of HCHO to VOCs indicated it could be as the good tracer for VOCs level. Finally, we calculated the O₃ increment reactivity (IR) of 65 VOCs species for each meteorological cluster, and found the differences in IR between low-reactivity and high-reactivity VOCs became significantly smaller under the M1 compared to M4, implying the importance of strengthening the control of low-reactivity components VOCs in on O₃ pollution days.

Key words

CH₃CHO / formation mechanism / HCHO / meteorological conditions / O₃

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LIU Ying-ying, CHEN Sai-sai, LUAN He-run, LIN Zhou-yue, NYIXIA Tsring, YUAN Yue-fu, WEI Wei. Characteristics and mechanisms of photochemical pollution in typical urban areas under different meteorological clusters[J]. China Environmental Science. 2025, 45(5): 2413-2422

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