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Mobile Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy measurements of SO2 and NO2 were performed in the Guangzhou Eastern Area (GEA) during the Guangzhou Asian Games 2010 from November 2010 to December 2010. Spatial and temporal distributions of SO2 and NO2 in this area were obtained and emission sources were determined by using wind field data. The NO2 vertical column densities were found to agree with OMI values. The correlation coefficient (R2) was 0.88 after cloud filtering. During the Guangzhou Asian Games and Asian Paralympics (Para) Games, the SO2 and NO2 emissions in the area were quantified using averaged wind speed and wind direction. For times outside the Games the average SO2 emission was estimated to be 9.50±0.90 tons per hour and the average NO2 emission was estimated to be 3.50±1.89 tons per hour. During the phases of the Asian and Asian Para Games, the SO2 and NO2 emissions were reduced by 53.5 and 46 %, respectively, compared to the usual condition. We also investigated the influence of GEA on Guangzhou University Town, the main venue located northwest of the GEA, and found that SO2 concentrations here were about tripled by emissions from the GEA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

​​​​​​​As a crucial constituent of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) influence public health, regional air quality, and global climate patterns. This paper highlights the use of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) which effectively retains strongly polar analytes that might exhibit incomplete or no retention in reverse chromatography, resulting in superior separation efficiency. A HILIC column was used to analyze six standards, environmental standards (1648a and 1649b), and samples collected in urban environments in Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region, which serve as valuable reference points for evaluating the organic composition of the atmospheric environment. The results indicate a high degree of accuracy in the analytical method. Sodium octyl- d17 sulfate serves as the internal standard, with a linear correlation coefficient of the six standards, boasting a linear correlation coefficient r ranging from 0.993–0.9991 and a slope, k , of the linear equation from 0.966–1.882. The instrument detection limits (IDLs) are established at 0.03–0.20 µgmL-1 , while the method detection limits (MDLs) fall within the range of 0.30–1.75 ngm-3 , demonstrating the method's exceptional sensitivity. Since isoprene-derived organosulfates (iOSs) are highly polar due to containing a hydrophilic bond to the hydroxyl group and a hydrophobic bond to the sulfate, and as such showed strong retention using this method, this technique employs sodium ethyl sulfate and sodium octyl sulfate standards for semi-quantitative compound analysis of iOSs. The error in sample analysis (EA) ranged from 12.25 %–95.26 %, and the two standards maintained a consistent recovery rate between 116 %–131 % and 86.4 %–127 %. These findings indicate a high level of precision when semi-quantifying compounds with similar structural characteristics, affirming the analysis method's minimal relative error and underscoring its repeatability, process stability, and the reliability of its results for iOSs. To enhance the method's reliability assessment, the study analyzed polar organic components of standard particulate matter samples (1648a and 1649b), providing precise determinations of several iOSs using this method. Methyltetrol sulfate (m/z 215, C5H11SO7-) is the highest concentration in the ambient samples, up to 67.3 ngm-3 in the daytime. These results serve as valuable reference points for assessing the organic composition of the atmospheric environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a crucial constituent of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), secondary organic aerosols (SOA) influence public health, regional air quality, and global climate patterns. This paper highlights the use of Hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) which effectively retains strongly polar analytes that might exhibit incomplete or no retention in reverse chromatography, resulting in superior separation efficiency. A HILIC column was used to analyze 7 standards, environmental standards (1648a and 1649b), and samples collected in urban environments in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangzhou. That serve as valuable reference points for evaluating the organic composition of the atmospheric environment. The results indicate a high degree of accuracy in the analytical method, sodium octyl-d17 sulfate serves as the internal standard, with a linear correlation coefficient of the 7 standards, boasting a linear correlation coefficient R ranging from 0.987-0.999 and a slope, k, of the linear equation from 0.9662-2.2927. The instrument detection limit (IDLs) is established at 0.0026-0.0300 µg mL-1, while the method detection limit (MDLs) falls within the range of 0.0077-0.2300 ng m-3, demonstrating the method's exceptional sensitivity. Since isoprene sulphates are highly polar due to containing a hydrophilic bond to the hydroxyl group and a hydrophobic bond to the sulphate, and as such showed strong retention using this method. This technique employs Sodium ethyl sulfate and Sodium octyl sulfate standards for semi-quantitative compound analysis isoprene-derived OSs, the error in sample analysis (EA) ranged from 12.25-95.26% and the two standards maintaining a consistent recovery rate between 116%-131% and 86%-127%. These findings indicate a high level of precision when semi-quantifying compounds with similar structural characteristics, affirming the analysis method's minimal relative error and underscoring its repeatability, process stability, and the reliability of its results for isoprene OSs. To enhance the method's reliability assessment, the study analyzed polar organic components of standard particulate matter samples (1648a and 1649b), providing precise determinations of several isoprene OSs using this method. Methyltetrol sulfate (m/z 215) is the highest concentration in the ambient samples, up to 67.33 ng m-3 at daytime. These results serve as valuable reference points for assessing the organic composition of the atmospheric environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a novel matching method tailored for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) thermal infrared images of photovoltaic (PV) panels characterized by highly repetitive textures. This method capitalizes on the integration of point and line features within the image to obtain reliable corresponding points. Furthermore, it employs multiple constraints to eliminate mismatched features and get rid of the interference of repetitive textures on feature matching. To verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, we used an UAV equipped with the DJI Zenmuse H20T thermal infrared gimbal to capture 3767 images of a PV power station in Guangzhou, China. Experiments demonstrate that, for UAV thermal infrared images of PV panels, our method outperforms the state-of-the-art techniques in terms of the density of matching points, matching success rate and matching reliability, consequently leading to robust aerial triangulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Aethalometer is a widely used instrument for black carbon (BC) mass concentration and light absorption coefficient (babs) measurements around the world. However, field intercomparison of the two popular models, dual-spot (AE33) and single-spot (AE31) Aethalometers, remains limited; in addition, the difference in secondary brown carbon (BrCsec) light absorption estimation between the two models is largely unknown. We performed full-year collocated AE33 and AE31 measurements in a megacity in southern China – Guangzhou. The babs values agree well between the two Aethalometers (R2 > 0.95), with AE33 / AE31 slopes ranging from 0.87 to 1.04 for seven wavelengths. AE33 consistently exhibits lower limits of detection (LODs) than AE31 for time resolutions of 2 to 60 min. The AE33 / AE31 slope for equivalent BC (eBC) was 1.2, implying the need for site-specific post-correction. The absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) obtained from different approaches does not agree very well between the two models, with the biggest discrepancy found in AAE880/950. The estimated BrCsec light absorption at 370 nm (babs370_BrCsec) was calculated using the minimum- R -squared (MRS) method for both Aethalometers. The babs370_BrCsec comparison yields a slope of 0.78 and an R2 of 0.72 between the two models, implying a non-negligible inter-instrument difference. This study highlights the high consistency in babs but less so in AAE between AE31 and AE33 and reveals site-specific correction for eBC estimation and non-negligible difference in BrCsec estimation. The results are valuable for data continuity in long-term Aethalometer measurements when transitioning from the older (AE31) to the newer (AE33) model, as anticipated in permanent global-climate and air-quality stations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge on the microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosols is essential to better evaluate their radiative forcing. This paper presents an estimate of the real part of the refractive indices (n) and effective densities (ρeff) of chemically segregated atmospheric aerosols in Guangzhou, China. Vacuum aerodynamic diameter, chemical compositions, and light-scattering intensities of individual particles were simultaneously measured by a single-particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS) during the fall of 2012. On the basis of Mie theory, n at a wavelength of 532 nm and ρeff were estimated for 17 particle types in four categories: organics (OC), elemental carbon (EC), internally mixed EC and OC (ECOC), and Metal-rich. The results indicate the presence of spherical or nearly spherical shapes for the majority of particle types, whose partial scattering cross-section versus sizes were well fitted to Mie theoretical modeling results. While sharing n in a narrow range (1.47-1.53), majority of particle types exhibited a wide range of ρeff (0.87-1.51 g cm-3). The OC group is associated with the lowest ρeff (0.87-1.07 g cm-3), and the Metal-rich group with the highest ones (1.29-1.51 g cm-3). It is noteworthy that a specific EC type exhibits a complex scattering curve versus size due to the presence of both compact and irregularly shaped particles. Overall, the results on the detailed relationship between physical and chemical properties benefits future research on the impact of aerosols on visibility and climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate geometric registration of images and pointclouds is the key step of many 3D-reconstruction or 3D-sensing tasks. In this paper, a novel L-junction based approach is proposed for semi-automatic accurate registration of aerial images and the airborne laser scanning (ALS) point-cloud in urban areas. The approach achieves accurate registration by associating the LiDAR points with the local planes extracted via L-junction detection and matching from multi-view aerial images. An L-junction is an intersection of two line-segments. Through the forward intersection of multi-view corresponding L-junctions, an accurate local junction-plane can be obtained. In the proposed approach, L-junction is manually collected from one view on the flat object-surfaces like walls, roads, and roofs and then automatically matched to other views with the aid of epipolar-geometry and vanishing-point constraints. Then, a plane-constrained bundle block adjustment of the image-orientation parameters is conducted, where the LiDAR points are treated as reference data. The proposed approach was tested with two datasets collected in Guangzhou city and Ningbo city of China. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach had better accuracy than the closest-point based method. The horizontal/vertical registration RMS of the proposed approach reached 4.21cm/5.72cm in Guangzhou dataset and 4.46cm/4.34cm in Ningbo dataset, which was much less than the average LiDAR-point distance (over 25cm in both datasets) and was very close to the image GSDs (3.2cm in Guangzhou and 4.8cm in Ningbo) and the a-priori ranging accuracy of the ALS equipment (about 3cm). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nighttime ozone in the lower boundary layer regulates atmospheric chemistry and surface ozone air quality, but our understanding of its vertical structure and impact is largely limited by the extreme sparsity of direct measurements. Here we present 3-year (2017–2019) measurements of ozone in the lower boundary layer (up to 500 m) from the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, the core megacity in South China, and interpret the measurements with a 1-month high-resolution chemical simulation from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Measurements are available at 10, 118, 168, and 488 m, with the highest (488 m) measurement platform higher than the typical height of the nighttime stable boundary layer that allows direct measurements of ozone in the nighttime residual layer (RL). We find that ozone increases with altitude in the lower boundary layer throughout the day, with a vertical ozone gradient between the 10 and 488 m heights (Δ O 3/Δ H 10–488 m) of 3.6–6.4 ppbv hm -1 in nighttime and 4.4–5.8 ppbv hm -1 in daytime. We identify a high ozone residual ratio, defined as the ratio of ozone concentration averaged over nighttime to that in the afternoon (14:00–17:00 LT), of 69 %–90 % in January, April, and October, remarkably higher than that in the other three layers (29 %–51 %). Ozone in the afternoon convective mixing layer provides the source of ozone in the RL, and strong temperature inversion facilitates the ability of RL to store ozone from the daytime convective mixing layer. The tower-based measurement also indicates that the nighttime surface O x (O x= O 3+ NO 2) level can be an effective indicator of RL ozone if direct measurement is not available. We further find significant influences of nocturnal RL ozone on both the nighttime and the following day's daytime surface ozone air quality. During the surface nighttime ozone enhancement (NOE) event, we observe a significant decrease in ozone and an increase in NO 2 and CO at the 488 m height, in contrast to their changes at the surface, a typical feature of enhanced vertical mixing. The enhanced vertical mixing leads to an NOE event by introducing ozone-rich and NO x -poor air into the RL to enter the nighttime stable boundary layer. The CMAQ model simulations also demonstrate an enhanced positive contribution of vertical diffusion (Δ VDIF) to ozone at the 10 and 118 m heights and a negative contribution at the 168 and 488 m heights during the NOE event. We also observe a strong correlation between nighttime RL ozone and the following day's surface maximum daily 8 h average (MDA8) ozone. This is tied to enhanced vertical mixing with the collapse of nighttime RL and the development of a convective mixing layer, which is supported by the CMAQ diagnosis of the ozone budget, suggesting that the mixing of ozone-rich air from nighttime RL downward to the surface via the entrainment is an important mechanism for aggravating ozone pollution the following day. We find that the bias in CMAQ-simulated surface MDA8 ozone the following day shows a strong correlation coefficient (r= 0.74) with the bias in nighttime ozone in the RL, highlighting the necessity to correct air quality model bias in the nighttime RL ozone for accurate prediction of daytime ozone. Our study thus highlights the value of long-term tower-based measurements for understanding the coupling between nighttime ozone in the RL, surface ozone air quality, and boundary layer dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continuing integration of the Chinese economy into the globalizing world and increasing intercity competition have had significant and comparatively recent implications for post-socialist urbanization in China. Driven by market-oriented development and globalization, decentralization of economic decision-making and downscaling of governance from the central state to local governments and authorities characterize the changing role of the state from urban managerialism to urban entrepreneurialism. Drawing on Jessop's definition of the entrepreneurial city and his concept of glurbanization, this paper aims to identify and analyse different modes of entrepreneurial urban governance based on the example of Guangzhou, a Chinese megacity that has been under intense pressure to revitalize its leading role as an economic, commercial and cultural centre in the Pearl River Delta and the rest of southern China. To face globalization and promote competitiveness, Guangzhou pursues various innovative interscalar entrepreneurial strategies in an active entrepreneurial fashion through adopting an entrepreneurial discourse. This is critically reflected upon within this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the sources and formation mechanism of oxidized organic nitrogen (OON), field measurements of OON were conducted using an iodide-adduct chemical ionization mass spectrometer equipped with a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO-CIMS) during fall of 2018 in the megacity of Guangzhou, China. Using levoglucosan as a tracer of biomass burning emissions, the results show that biomass burning (49±23 %) and secondary formation (51±23 %) accounted for comparable fractions to the total particle-phase OON (pOON) but 24±25 % and 76±25 % to the gas-phase OON (gOON), respectively, signifying the important contribution of biomass burning to pOON and secondary formation to gOON in this urban area. Calculations of production rates of gOON indicated that hydroxyl radical (42 %) and nitrate radical (NO 3) (49 %) oxidation pathways potentially dominated the secondary formation of gOON. A high concentration of NO 3 radicals during the afternoon was observed, demonstrating that the daytime NO 3 oxidation might be more important than the previous recognition. Monoterpenes, found to be major precursors of secondary gOON, were mainly from anthropogenic emissions in this urban area. The ratio of secondary pOON to O x ([O x ] = [O 3 ] + [NO 2 ]) increased as a function of relative humidity and aerosol surface area, indicating that heterogeneous reaction might be an important formation pathway for secondary pOON. Finally, the highly oxidized gOON and pOON with 6 to 11 oxygen atoms were observed, highlighting the complex secondary reaction processes of OON in the ambient air. Overall, our results improve the understanding of the sources and dynamic variation of OON in the urban atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nighttime ozone in the lower boundary layer regulates atmospheric chemistry and surface ozone air quality, but our understanding of its vertical structure and impact is largely limited by the extreme sparsity of direct measurements. Here we present 3-year (2017–2019) measurements of ozone in the lower boundary layer (up to 500 m) from the Canton Tower at Guangzhou, the core megacity in South China, and interpret the measurements with a one-month high-resolution chemical simulation from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Measurements are available at 10 m, 118 m, 168 m, and 488 m, with the highest 488 m measurement platform higher than the typical height of nighttime stable boundary layer that allows direct measurements of ozone in the nighttime residual layer (RL). We find that ozone increases with altitude in the lower boundary layer throughout the day, with nighttime (daytime) ozone at the 488 m height being 2.4–5.4 (1.5–2.4) times as that at the 10 m height. This indicates a persistent high ozone level and oxidation capacity aloft the surface. The ozone vertical gradient between the 10 m and 488 m height (∆O3/∆H10–488 m) is 3.6–6.4 ppbv/hm in nighttime and 4.4–5.8 ppbv/hm daytime. We identify a strong ozone residual capacity, defined as the ratio of the ozone concentration averaged over nighttime to that in the afternoon (14:00–17:00 LT), of 67 %–90 % in January, April and October, remarkably higher than that in the other three layers (29 %–51 %). Ozone in the afternoon convective mixing layer provides the source of ozone in the RL, and strong temperature inversion facilitates the ability of RL to store ozone from the daytime convective mixing layer, by constraining the exchange of RL ozone with ozone inside the nocturnal stable boundary layer that is subject to strong chemical destruction and deposition. The tower-based measurement also indicates that nighttime surface Ox (Ox=O3+NO2) level can be an effective indicator of RL ozone if direct measurement is not available. We further find significant influences of nocturnal RL ozone on both nighttime and the following day's daytime surface ozone air quality. During the surface nighttime ozone enhancement (NOE) event, we observe significant decrease in ozone and increase in NO2 and CO at the 488 m height, in contrast to their changes at the surface, a typical feature of enhanced vertical mixing. The enhanced vertical mixing leads to NOE event by introducing ozone-rich air in the RL to enter the nighttime stable boundary layer and weakens the titration effect by diluting NOx concentrations. The CMAQ model simulations also demonstrate enhanced positive contribution of vertical diffusion (ΔVDIF) to ozone at the 10 m and 118 m and negative contribution at the 168 m and 488 m during the NOE event. We also observe strong correlation between nighttime RL ozone and the following day's surface MDA8 ozone. This is tied to enhanced vertical mixing with the collapse of nighttime RL and the development of convective mixing layer, which is supported by the CMAQ simulated increase in positive ΔVDIF of +50 ppbv·hr−1 at the 10 m and negative ΔVDIF of -10 ppbv·hr−1 at 488 m at early morning (08:00–09:00 LT), suggesting that the mixing of ozone-rich air from nighttime RL downward to surface via the entrainment is an important mechanism to aggravate ozone pollution in the following day. We find that the bias of CMAQ simulated surface MDA8 ozone in the following day shows a strong correlation coefficient (r =0.74) with the bias in nighttime ozone in the RL, highlighting the necessity to correct air quality model bias in the nighttime RL ozone for accurate prediction of daytime ozone. Our study thus highlights the value of long-term tower-based measurements for understanding the coupling between nighttime ozone in the RL, surface ozone air quality, and boundary layer dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both the size and mixing state of black carbon (BC)-containing aerosols are crucial in estimating the environmental, health and climate impacts of BC. Traffic emissions are a major global source of BC; however, parameterization of BC mass size distributions and mixing states associated with traffic remains lacking due to its dependence on vehicle types and driving conditions. To investigate BC mass size distributions and mixing states associated with traffic emissions, a field campaign was conducted in the Guangzhou urban area during winter, which used a system coupling a differential mobility analyzer (DMA) and a single-particle soot photometer (SP2) to measure BC mass size distributions in the range of 100 to 700 nm. The resolved primary organic aerosols were hydrocarbon-like organic aerosols (HOA) and cooking-like organic aerosols (COA), as well as refractory BC (rBC), which was detected by the DMA–SP2 and correlated highly with HOA (R2=0.88), confirming that traffic emissions are the dominant source of atmospheric BC during the observations. The BC mass size distribution was found to be best fitted by a lognormal distribution, with a geometric mean (Dg,BC) of 258±16 nm, varying between 200 and 300 nm. During daytime, active formation of secondary nitrate and organic aerosols was observed, but it had little effect on the variations of BC mass size distributions. Further analyses revealed that Dg,BC was moderately correlated with rBC / HOA (R2=0.41) in a linear form of Dg,BC=34×rBC/HOA+177 , demonstrating that the BC content of traffic emissions significantly impacts the BC mass size distributions. In addition, the size-dependent fractions of BC-containing aerosols in all types of aerosols (fBCc) and the fraction of identified externally mixed (bare/thinly coated) BC particles in all BC-containing aerosols (fext) were also characterized. It was found that the daytime secondary aerosol formation reduced both fBCc and fext , with the decrease in fext being more pronounced for larger particles, possibly due to the higher relative coating thickness. Variations in fext during nighttime were mainly controlled by the emission conditions. For example, fext for 600 nm particles decreased from 0.82 to 0.46 as rBC / HOA increased from 1 to 3.5, while the mass ratios of secondary aerosols to rBC varied little, demonstrating that the BC content also significantly affects the mixing states of freshly emitted BC from traffic emissions. This study suggests that BC content can be used as the key factor to parameterize both the BC mass size distribution and mixing states from traffic emissions, which warrants future comprehensive investigation. In addition, other sources such as biomass burning and coal combustion also contribute substantially to BC emissions, and it was important to investigate whether BC content of other major BC sources than traffic is also important in determining BC mass size distributions and mixing states. Overall, results of this study have significant implications for accurate representation of BC from different sources when modeling the impacts of BC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emission controls have substantially brought down aerosol pollution in China; however, aerosol mass reductions have slowed down in recent years in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, where secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation poses a major challenge for air quality improvement. In this study, we characterized the roles of SOA in haze formation in urban Guangzhou in the PRD using year-long aerosol mass spectrometer measurements for the first time and discussed possible pathways of SOA formations. On average, organic aerosols (OA) contribute dominantly (50 %) to nonrefractory submicron aerosol mass (NR-PM 1). The average mass concentration of SOA (including by less- and more-oxidized OA, LOOA and MOOA) contributed most to NR-PM 1 , reaching about 1.7 times that of primary organic aerosols (POA, including hydrocarbon-like and cooking-related OA) and accounting for 32 % of NR-PM 1 , even more than sulfate (22 %) and nitrate (16 %). Seasonal variations of NR-PM 1 revealed that haze-formation mechanisms differed much among distinct seasons. Sulfate mattered more than nitrate in fall, while nitrate was more important than sulfate in spring and winter, with SOA contributing significantly to haze formations in all the seasons. Daytime SOA formation was weak in winter under low oxidant levels and air relative humidity, whereas prominent daytime SOA formation was observed in fall, spring and summer almost on a daily basis, suggesting important roles of photochemistry in SOA formations. Further analysis showed that the coordination of gas-phase photochemistry and subsequent aqueous-phase reactions likely played significant roles in quick daytime SOA formations. Obvious nighttime SOA formations were also frequently observed in spring, fall and winter, and it was found that daytime and nighttime SOA formations together had resulted in the highest SOA concentrations in these seasons and contributed substantially to severe haze formations. Simultaneous increases in nitrate with SOA after sunset suggested the important roles of NO 3 radical chemistry in nighttime SOA formations, and this was further confirmed by a continuous increase in the NO + / NO 2+ fragment ratio that related to measured particulate nitrate after sunset. The findings of this study have promoted our understanding of haze pollution characteristics of the PRD and laid down future directions for investigations of SOA-formation mechanisms in urban areas of southern China that share similar emission sources and meteorological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A dataset of particle optical properties of the highly polluted atmosphere over the Pearl River Delta (PRD), Guangzhou, China, is presented in this paper. The data were derived from the measurements of a multiwavelength Raman and depolarization lidar PollyXT and a co-located AERONET sun photometer. The measurement campaign was conducted from November 2011 to mid- June 2012. These are the first Raman lidar measurements in the PRD that lasted for several months. A mean value of aerosol optical depth (AOD) of 0.54±0.33 was observed by the sun photometer at 500 nm in the polluted atmosphere over this megacity for the whole measurement period. The lidar profiles frequently show lofted aerosol layers, which reach altitudes of up to 2 to 3 km and, especially during the spring season, up to 5 km. These layers contain between 12 and 56% of the total AOD, with the highest values in spring. The aerosol types in these lofted layers are classified by their optical properties. The observed lidar ratio values range from 30 to 80 sr with a mean value of 48.0±10.7 sr at 532 nm. The linear particle depolarization ratio at 532 nm lies mostly below 5%, with a mean value of 3.6±3.7%. The majority of the Ångström exponents lie between 0.5 and 1.5, indicating a mixture of fine- and coarsemode aerosols. These results reveal that mostly urban pollution particles mixed with particles produced from biomass and industrial burning are present in the atmosphere above the Pearl River Delta. Trajectory analyses show that these pollution mixtures arise mainly from local and regional sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water-soluble humic-like substances (HULIS) absorb light in near-UV and visible wavelengths and exert significant influence on the atmospheric environment and climate. However, knowledge on HULIS evolution during haze bloom-decay process is limited. Herein, PM 2.5 samples were obtained during a winter haze event in Guangzhou, China, and the light absorption and molecular composition of HULIS were investigated by UV–Vis spectrophotometry and ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry. Compared with HULIS on clean days, the absorption coefficients (Abs 365) of HULIS on haze days were significantly higher but the mass absorption efficiencies (MAE 365) were relatively low, suggesting diverse and dynamic absorption properties of HULIS during haze episodes. The CHO and CHON compounds were the most abundant components in HULIS, followed by CHOS, CHONS, and CHN. Haze HULIS presented comparatively high molecular weight; a lower aromaticity index (AI mod); and higher O/Cw , O/Nw , and O/Sw ratios, indicating that HULIS fractions undergo relatively high oxidation during haze days compared to clean days. Moreover, CHON and CHO compounds with high AI mod were the major potential chromophores in HULIS and significantly contributed to HULIS light absorption. It is worth noting that the proportions of these chromophores decreased during haze events, mainly owing to their higher oxidation during haze episodes. Besides, accumulated contribution of organic compounds emitted from vehicles and formed from reactions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (bio-VOCs) also diluted light-absorbing compounds in haze HULIS. These findings help us to understand HULIS evolution during haze bloom-decay processes in the subtropic region of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, three methods, i.e., the random forest (RF) algorithm, boosted regression trees (BRTs) and the improved complete ensemble empirical-mode decomposition with adaptive noise (ICEEMDAN), were adopted for investigating emission-driven interannual variations in concentrations of air pollutants including PM2.5 , PM10 , O3 , NO2 , CO , SO2 and NO2 + O3 monitored in six cities in South China from May 2014 to April 2021. The first two methods were used to calculate the deweathered hourly concentrations, and the third one was used to calculate decomposed hourly residuals. To constrain the uncertainties in the calculated deweathered or decomposed hourly values, a self-developed method was applied to calculate the range of the deweathered percentage changes (DePCs) of air pollutant concentrations on an annual scale (each year covers May to the next April). These four methods were combined together to generate emission-driven trends and percentage changes (PCs) during the 7-year period. Consistent trends between the RF-deweathered and BRT-deweathered concentrations and the ICEEMDAN-decomposed residuals of an air pollutant in a city were obtained in approximately 70 % of a total of 42 cases (for seven pollutants in six cities), but consistent PCs calculated from the three methods, defined as the standard deviation being smaller than 10 % of the corresponding mean absolute value, were obtained in only approximately 30 % of all the cases. The remaining cases with inconsistent trends and/or PCs indicated large uncertainties produced by one or more of the three methods. The calculated PCs from the deweathered concentrations and decomposed residuals were thus combined with the corresponding range of DePCs calculated from the self-developed method to gain the robust range of DePCs where applicable. Based on the robust range of DePCs, we identified significant decreasing trends in PM2.5 concentration from 2014 to 2020 in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which were mainly caused by the reduced air pollutant emissions and to a much lesser extent by weather perturbations. A decreasing or probably decreasing emission-driven trend was identified in Haikou and Sanya with inconsistent PCs, and a stable or no trend was identified in Zhanjiang with positive PCs. For O3 , a significant increasing trend from 2014 to 2020 was identified in Zhanjiang, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Haikou. An increasing trend in NO2 + O3 was also identified in Zhanjiang and Guangzhou and an increasing or probably increasing trend in Haikou, suggesting the contributions from enhanced formation of O3. The calculated PCs from using different methods implied that the emission changes in O3 precursors and the associated atmospheric chemistry likely played a dominant role than did the perturbations from varying weather conditions. Results from this study also demonstrated the necessity of combining multiple decoupling methods in generating emission-driven trends in atmospheric pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radar extrapolation is an important means in nowcasting. The main methods in radar extrapolation in China are COTREC and Optical Flow. Two consecutive echo are used to diagnose the advection velocity within rain analyses, which involove the solution of Lagrangian persistence equation. In this paper, RNN(Recurrent Neural Network) is applied in nowcasting. Using PredRNN(Predictive RNN), by modeling historical radar data, the prediction of radar echo in the next 1 hour is given. PredRNN consisted of ST-LSTM unit, which is an improved of LSTM. One of the advantages of using PredRNN is the operation of the state accumulation and the hidden layer output is replaced by convolution. So the neurons not only can get timing relationships, but also extract spatial features like convolutional layers. Another one of the advantages of using PredRNN is the addition of a new spatial memory, which can enhance the transportation of the spatial feature information in different layers. Beijing Daxing and Guangzhou radar are used in this paper to test model performance in different areas in China. Before nowcasing, radar echo is quality controlled to remove isolated echo, abnormal echo, invalid radial, echo below 15dBZ and ground echo, and then combined reflectivity(CR) is made by 0-5 layers of data. To examine the applicability of the PredRNN, a contrast experiment has been designed between PredRNN and COTREC, including an independent verification over months of each radar and two severe convective cases analysis. The test is carried out by point by point in three different reflectivity factor threshold,20dBZ,30dBZ and 50dBZ. The indexes of verification are CSI, POD, FAR. The time range of the test is 0-1h by 6min. The results show that: 1) PredRNN has better forecast performance in all the verification items. Especially, in 20dBZ and 30dBZ, CSI can be raised by 0.15-0.3, POD can be raised by 0.15-0.25, FAR can be reduced by 0.15-0.2. 2) The effect of improvement in 1) increases with time. Although, the forecast performance of both PredRNN and COTREC falls with time, but the PredRNN method descends more slowly. 3) The forecast performance of both PredRNN and COTREC falls with the increase of the combined reflectivity factor strength, which shows the insufficient of prediction ability for the region with intensity over 50dBZ. 4) Two cases show that the PredRNN method has predictive ability for the change of reflectivity factor intensity. In summary, PredRNN is suitable for nowcasting, and its forecast performance is much better than COTREC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are key precursors of ozone and particulate matter, which are the two dominant air pollutants in urban environments. However, compositions and sources of VOCs in urban air aloft have rarely been reported so far. To address this matter, highly time-resolved measurements of VOCs were made by a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) at a 450 m platform on the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China. A combination of in situ measurements and modeling techniques was used to characterize variations in and sources of VOCs. Five sources were identified from positive matrix factorization (PMF) analysis, namely daytime mixed (e.g., biogenic emissions and secondary formation), visitor-related (e.g., human breath, cooking, and volatilization of ethanol-containing products), vehicular–industrial, regional transport, and volatile chemical product (VCP) (i.e., volatilization of personal care products), contributing on average to 21 %, 30 %, 28 %, 10 %, and 11 % of total VOC (TVOC) mixing ratios, respectively. We observe that contributions of the visitor-related source, mainly composed of ethanol, followed with the variation in visitor numbers on the tower well. The VCP-dominated source only had an average contribution of ∼5.7 ppb during the campaign, accounting for a small fraction (11 %) of TVOC mixing ratios but a large fraction (22 %) of the total OH reactivity. However, large fractions of reactive VOC species, e.g., monoterpenes (49 %), were attributed to the VCP-dominated source, indicating important contributions of VCPs to ambient concentrations of these species in urban environments. Vertical profiles of air pollutants (namely NOx , ozone, Ox , and PM 2.5), measured at 5, 118, 168, and 488 m, exhibited more evident gradients at night than in the daytime owing to the stronger stability of the nocturnal boundary layer. Mixing ratios of VOC species during the nighttime generally decreased with time when the 450 m platform was located in the nocturnal residual layer and markedly increased when impacted by emissions at ground level. The results in this study demonstrated composition characteristics and sources of VOCs in urban air aloft, which could provide valuable implications in making strategies for control of VOCs and secondary air pollutants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High concentrations of nitrous acid (HONO) have been observed in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China in recent years, contributing to an elevated atmospheric oxidation capacity due to the production of OH through HONO photolysis. We investigated the budget of HONO at an urban site in Guangzhou from 27 September to 9 November 2018 using data from a comprehensive atmospheric observation campaign. During this period, measured concentrations of HONO were 0.02 to 4.43 ppbv, with an average of 0.74 ± 0.70 ppbv. An emission ratio (HONO/NOx) of 0.9 ± 0.4 % was derived from 11 fresh plumes. The primary emission rate of HONO at night was calculated to be between 0.04 ± 0.02 and 0.30 ± 0.15 ppbv h -1 based on a high-resolution NO x emission inventory. Heterogeneous conversion of NO 2 on the ground surface (0.27 ± 0.13 ppbv h -1), primary emissions from vehicle exhaust (between 0.04 ± 0.02 and 0.30 ± 0.15 ppbv h -1 , with a middle value of 0.16 ± 0.07 ppbv h -1), and the homogeneous reaction of NO + OH (0.14 ± 0.30 ppbv h -1) were found to be the three largest sources of HONO at night. Heterogeneous NO 2 conversion on aerosol surfaces (0.03 ± 0.02 ppbv h -1) and soil emission (0.019 ± 0.009 ppbv h -1) were two other minor sources. Correlation analysis shows that NH 3 and the relative humidity (RH) may have participated in the heterogeneous transformation of NO 2 to HONO at night. Dry deposition (0.41 ± 0.31 ppbv h -1) was the main removal process of HONO at night, followed by dilution (0.18 ± 0.16 ppbv h -1), while HONO loss at aerosol surfaces was much slower (0.008 ± 0.006 ppbv h -1). In the daytime, the average primary emission Pemis was 0.12 ± 0.02 ppbv h -1 , and the homogeneous reaction POH+NO was 0.79 ± 0.61 ppbv h -1 , larger than the unknown source PUnknown (0.65 ± 0.46 ppbv h -1). Similar to previous studies, PUnknown appeared to be related to the photo-enhanced conversion of NO 2. Our results show that primary emissions and the reaction of NO + OH can significantly affect HONO at a site with intensive emissions during both the daytime and nighttime. Uncertainty in parameter values assumed in the calculation of HONO sources can have a strong impact on the relative importance of HONO sources at night, and could be reduced by improving knowledge of key parameters such as the NO 2 uptake coefficient. The uncertainty in the estimated direct emission can be reduced by using emission data with higher resolution and quality. Our study highlights the importance of better constraining both conventional and novel HONO sources by reducing uncertainties in their key parameters for advancing our knowledge of this important source of atmospheric OH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) account for a large fraction of atmospheric aerosol mass and play significant roles in visibility impairment by scattering solar radiation. However, comprehensive evaluations of SOA scattering abilities under ambient relative humidity (RH) conditions on the basis of field measurements are still lacking due to the difficulty of simultaneously direct quantifications of SOA scattering efficiency in dry state and SOA water uptake abilities. In this study, field measurements of aerosol chemical and physical properties were conducted in winter in Guangzhou (lasting about 3 months) using a humidified nephelometer system and aerosol chemical speciation monitor. A modified multilinear regression model was proposed to retrieve dry-state mass scattering efficiencies (MSEs, defined as scattering coefficient per unit aerosol mass) of aerosol components. The more oxidized oxygenated organic aerosol (MOOA) with an O/C ratio of 1.17 was identified as the most efficient light scattering aerosol component. On average, 34 % mass contribution of MOOA to total submicron organic aerosol mass contributed 51 % of dry-state organic aerosol scattering. The overall organic aerosol hygroscopicity parameter κOA was quantified directly through hygroscopicity closure, and hygroscopicity parameters of SOA components were further retrieved using a multilinear regression model by assuming hydrophobic properties of primary organic aerosols. The highest water uptake ability of MOOA among organic aerosol factors was revealed with κMOOA reaching 0.23, thus further enhancing the fractional contribution of MOOA in ambient organic aerosol scattering. In particular, the scattering abilities of MOOA were found to be even higher than those of ammonium nitrate under RH of <70% , which was identified as the most efficient inorganic scattering aerosol component, demonstrating that MOOA had the strongest scattering abilities in ambient air (average RH of 57 %) during winter in Guangzhou. During the observation period, secondary aerosols contributed dominantly to visibility degradation (∼70%), with substantial contributions from MOOA (16 % on average), demonstrating significant impacts of MOOA on visibility degradation. The findings of this study demonstrate that more attention needs to be paid to SOA property changes in future visibility improvement investigations. Also, more comprehensive studies on MOOA physical properties and chemical formation are needed to better parameterize its radiative effects in models and implement targeted control strategies on MOOA precursors for visibility improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organosulfur compounds (OrgSs), especially organosulfates, have been widely reported to be present in large quantities in particulate organic matter found in various atmospheric environments. Despite hundreds of organosulfates and their formation mechanisms being previously identified, a large fraction of OrgSs remain unexplained at the molecular level, and a better understanding of their formation pathways and critical environmental parameters is required to explain the variations in their concentrations. In this study, the abundance and molecular composition of OrgSs in fine particulate samples collected in Guangzhou were reported. The results revealed that the ratio of the annual average mass of organic sulfur to total particulate sulfur was 33 ± 12 %, and organic sulfur had positive correlations with SO 2 (r=0.37 , p<0.05) and oxidant (NO x + O 3 , r=0.40 , p<0.01). A Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR MS) analysis revealed that more than 80 % of the sulfur-containing formulas detected in the samples had the elemental composition of o/(4s+3n)≥1 , indicating that they were largely in the form of oxidized organosulfates or nitrooxy organosulfates. Many OrgSs that were previously tentatively identified as having biogenic or anthropogenic origins were also present in freshly emitted aerosols derived from combustion sources. The results indicated that the formation of OrgSs through an epoxide intermediate pathway could account for up to 46 % of OrgSs from an upper bound estimation, and the oxidant levels could explain 20 % of the variation in the mass of organic sulfur. The analysis of our large dataset of FT-ICR MS results suggested that relative humidity, oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds via ozonolysis, and NO x -related nitrooxy organosulfate formation were the major reasons for the molecular variation of OrgSs, possibly highlighting the importance of the acid-catalyzed ring-opening of epoxides, oxidation processes, and heterogeneous reactions involving either the uptake of SO 2 or the heterogeneous oxidation of particulate organosulfates into additional unrecognized OrgSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aerosol hygroscopic growth describes the interaction between aerosols and water vapor, which varies largely, depending on the chemical composition, types, and emissions of gas precursors under diverse environments. In this study, we analyzed size-resolved hygroscopic growth measured at five field sites of China by a hygroscopic tandem differential mobility analyzer (H-TDMA). Results show that the probability density function of hygroscopic growth factor (GF-PDF) at the megacity sites of Guangzhou (GZ), Shanghai (SH), and Beijing (BG) was generally with bimodal hydrophobic and hydrophilic modes, while a unimodal hydrophilic mode was dominated at the suburb sites of Xinzhou (XZ) and Xingtai (XT) throughout the measured particle size of 40–200 nm. As a result, the more hygroscopic (MH) mode accounts for a number fraction of >80 % at the suburb sites, compared to only 20 %–40 % for 40 nm particles at the megacity sites. Further analysis shows that the GF value increases with the aggravated PM 2.5 pollution at the sites (BG, XZ, and XT) in northern China, but that is not the case for GZ and SH, which are located in the southern regions. The distinct dependence of GF on the variations in PM 2.5 concentrations among the sites suggests the spatial variability in particle composition with the evolution of pollution events in different regions of China. Moreover, different particle hygroscopic behaviors during new particle formation (NPF) events were observed at the five sites, reflecting the distinct mechanisms of NPF in diverse atmospheric environments. By including results from more sites, we find that the aerosol particles observed at those suburb sites are basically more hygroscopic than those in megacities. However, a large variability in the hygroscopic parameter κ at a given particle size among different sites is also observed, suggesting a complex impact from local sources and atmospheric processes. The measured dataset is helpful for improving the understanding of the formation of fine particles and the regional environmental and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) regulate atmospheric oxidation capacity, and the reactions of VOCs are key in understanding ozone formation and its mitigation strategies. When evaluating their impact, most previous studies did not fully consider the role of oxygenated VOCs due to limitations of measurement technology. By using a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) combined with a gas chromatograph–mass spectrometer (GC–MS), a large number of oxygenated VOCs (OVOCs) have been quantified in Guangzhou city, China. Based on the new dataset, we demonstrate that constraints using OVOC observations are essential in modeling radical and ozone production, as modeled OVOCs can be substantially lower than measurements, potentially due to primary emissions and/or missing secondary sources. Non-formaldehyde (HCHO) OVOCs can contribute large fractions (22 %–44 %) of total RO x radical production, which are comparable to or larger than the contributions from nitrous acid and formaldehyde. Our results show that models without OVOC constraints using ambient measurements will underestimate the production rates of RO x and ozone, and they may also affect the determination of sensitivity regime in ozone formation. Therefore, a thorough quantification of photodegradable OVOC species is in urgent need to understand accurately the ozone chemistry and to develop effective control strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed incremental reactivity (IR) scales for 116 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in a Chinese megacity (Guangzhou) and elucidated their application in calculating the ozone (O3) formation potential (OFP) in China. Two sets of model inputs (emission-based and observation-based) were designed to localize the IR scales in Guangzhou using the Master Chemical Mechanism (MCM) box model and were also compared with those of the US. The two inputs differed in how primary pollutant inputs in the model were derived, with one based on emission data and the other based on observed pollutant levels, but the maximum incremental reactivity (MIR) scales derived from them were fairly similar. The IR scales showed a strong dependence on the chemical mechanism (MCM vs. Statewide Air Pollution Research Center), and a higher consistency was found in IR scales between China and the US using a similar chemical mechanism. With a given chemical mechanism, the MIR scale for most VOCs showed a relatively small dependence on environmental conditions. However, when the NOx availability decreased, the IR scales became more sensitive to environmental conditions and the discrepancy between the IR scales obtained from emission-based and observation-based inputs increased, thereby implying the necessity to localize IR scales over mixed-limited or NOx -limited areas. This study provides recommendations for the application of IR scales, which has great significance for VOC control in China and other countries suffering from serious O3 air pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Kingdom Chemistry and Aerosols (UKCA) chemistry–climate model is used to quantify the differences in chemical environment for surface O3 for six major industrial regions across China in summer 2016. We first enhance the UKCA gas-phase chemistry scheme by incorporating reactive volatile organic compound (VOC) tracers that are necessary to represent urban and regional-scale O3 photochemistry. We demonstrate that the model with the improved chemistry scheme captures the observed magnitudes and diurnal patterns of surface O3 concentrations across these regions well. Simulated O3 concentrations are highest in Beijing and Shijiazhuang on the North China Plain and in Chongqing, lower in Shanghai and Nanjing in the Yangtze River Delta, and lowest in Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta despite the highest daytime O3 production rates in Guangzhou. NOx / VOC and H2O2 / HNO3 ratios indicate that O3 production across all regions except Chongqing is VOC limited. We confirm this by constructing O3 response surfaces for each region changing NOx and VOC emissions and further contrast the effectiveness of measures to reduce surface O3 concentrations. In VOC-limited regions, reducing NOx emissions by 20 % leads to a substantial O3 increase (11 %) in Shanghai. We find that reductions in NOx emissions alone of more than 70 % are required to decrease O3 concentrations across all regions. Reductions in VOC emissions alone of 20 % produce the largest decrease (- 11 %) in O3 levels in Shanghai and Guangzhou and the smallest decrease (- 1 %) in Chongqing. These responses are substantially different from those currently found in highly populated regions in other parts of the world, likely due to higher NOx emission levels in these Chinese regions. Our work provides an assessment of the effectiveness of emission control strategies to mitigate surface O3 pollution in these major industrial regions and emphasises that combined NOx and VOC emission controls play a pivotal role in effectively offsetting high O3 levels. It also demonstrates new capabilities in capturing regional air pollution that will permit this model to be used for future studies of regional air-quality–climate interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution by particulate matter in China affects human health, the ecosystem and the climate. However, the chemical composition of particulate aerosol, especially of the organic fraction, is still not well understood. In this study, particulate aerosol samples with a diameter of ≤2.5 µ m (PM2.5) were collected in January 2014 in three cities located in northeast, east and southeast China, namely Changchun, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Organic aerosol (OA) in the PM2.5 samples was analyzed by an ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatograph (UHPLC) coupled to a high-resolution Orbitrap mass spectrometer in both negative mode (ESI-) and positive mode electrospray ionization (ESI+). After non-target screening including the assignment of molecular formulas, the compounds were classified into five groups based on their elemental composition, i.e., CHO, CHON, CHN, CHOS and CHONS. The CHO, CHON and CHN groups present the dominant signal abundances of 81 %–99.7 % in the mass spectra and the majority of these compounds were assigned to mono- and polyaromatics, suggesting that anthropogenic emissions are a major source of urban OA in all three cities. However, the chemical characteristics of these compounds varied between the different cities. The degree of aromaticity and the number of polyaromatic compounds were substantially higher in samples from Changchun, which could be attributed to the large emissions from residential heating (i.e., coal combustion) during wintertime in northeast China. Moreover, the ESI- analysis showed higher H/C and O/C ratios for organic compounds in Shanghai and Guangzhou compared to samples from Changchun, indicating that OA undergoes more intense photochemical oxidation processes in lower-latitude regions of China and/or is affected to a larger degree by biogenic sources. The majority of sulfur-containing compounds (CHOS and CHONS) in all cities were assigned to aliphatic compounds with low degrees of unsaturation and aromaticity. Here again, samples from Shanghai and Guangzhou show a greater chemical similarity but differ largely from those from Changchun. It should be noted that the conclusions drawn in this study are mainly based on comparison of molecular formulas weighted by peak abundance and thus are associated with inherent uncertainties due to different ionization efficiencies for different organic species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The atmospheric processes under polluted environments involving interactions of anthropogenic pollutants and natural emissions lead to the formation of various and complex secondary products. Therefore, the characterization of oxygenated organic compounds in urban areas remains a pivotal issue in our understanding of the evolution of organic carbon. Here, we describe measurements of an iodide chemical ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometer installed with a Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO-I-CIMS) in both the gas phase and the particle phase at an urban site in Guangzhou, a typical megacity in southern China, during the autumn of 2018. Abundant oxygenated organic compounds containing two to five oxygen atoms were observed, including organic acids, multi-functional organic compounds typically emitted from biomass burning, oxidation products of biogenic hydrocarbons and aromatics. Photochemistry played dominant roles in the formation of gaseous organic acids and isoprene-derived organic nitrates, while nighttime chemistry contributed significantly to the formation of monoterpene-derived organic nitrates and inorganics. Nitrogen-containing organic compounds occupied a significant fraction of the total signal in both the gas and particle phases, with elevated fractions at higher molecular weights. Measurements of organic compounds in the particle phase by FIGAERO-I-CIMS explained 24 ± 0.8 % of the total organic aerosol mass measured by aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), and the fraction increased for more aged organic aerosol. The systematical interpretation of mass spectra of the FIGAERO-I-CIMS in the urban area of Guangzhou provides a holistic view of numerous oxygenated organic compounds in the urban atmosphere, which can serve as a reference for the future field measurements by FIGAERO-I-CIMS in polluted urban regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land surface emissions are an important source of atmospheric total gaseous mercury (TGM); however, its role on the variations of TGM isotopic compositions and concentrations has not been properly evaluated. In this study, TGM isotope compositions, a powerful tracer for sources and transformation of Hg, were measured at 10 urban sites and one rural site in China. TGM concentrations were higher in summer than in winter in most cities except in Guiyang and Guangzhou in the low latitudes. The summertime high TGM concentrations coincided with prevailing low TGM δ202 Hg and high TGM Δ199 Hg signatures. These seasonal patterns were in contrast with those typically observed in rural areas in the Northern Hemisphere, suggesting that atmospheric oxidation chemistry, vegetation activity and residential coal combustion were likely not the dominant mechanisms contributing to the TGM concentration and isotopic composition seasonality in Chinese cities. The amplitudes of seasonal variations in TGM concentrations and Δ199 Hg (or TGM δ202 Hg) were significantly positively (or negatively) correlated with that of the simulated soil GEM emission flux. These results suggest that the seasonal variations in TGM isotopic compositions and concentrations in the 10 Chinese cities were likely controlled by land surface emissions that were observed or reported with highly negative δ202 Hg signatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) play important roles in the tropospheric atmosphere. In this study, VOCs were measured at an urban site in Guangzhou, one of the megacities in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), using a gas chromatograph–mass spectrometer/flame ionization detection (GC–MS/FID) and a proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS). Diurnal profile analyses show that stronger chemical removal by OH radicals for more reactive hydrocarbons occurs during the daytime, which is used to estimate the daytime average OH radical concentration. In comparison, diurnal profiles of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) indicate evidence of contributions from secondary formation. Detailed source analyses of OVOCs, using a photochemical age-based parameterization method, suggest important contributions from both primary emissions and secondary formation for measured OVOCs. During the campaign, around 1700 ions were detected in PTR-ToF-MS mass spectra, among which there were 462 ions with noticeable concentrations. VOC signals from these ions are quantified based on the sensitivities of available VOC species. OVOC-related ions dominated PTR-ToF-MS mass spectra, with an average contribution of 73 % ± 9 %. Combining measurements from PTR-ToF-MS and GC–MS/FID, OVOCs contribute 57 % ± 10 % to the total concentration of VOCs. Using concurrent measurements of OH reactivity, OVOCs measured by PTR-ToF-MS contribute greatly to the OH reactivity (19 % ± 10 %). In comparison, hydrocarbons account for 21 % ± 11 % of OH reactivity. Adding up the contributions from inorganic gases (48 % ± 15 %), ∼ 11 % (range of 0 %–19 %) of the OH reactivity remains 'missing", which is well within the combined uncertainties between the measured and calculated OH reactivity. Our results demonstrate the important roles of OVOCs in the emission and evolution budget of VOCs in the urban atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher alkanes are a major class of intermediate-volatility organic compounds (IVOCs), which have been proposed to be important precursors of secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in the atmosphere. Accurate estimation of SOA from higher alkanes and their oxidation processes in the atmosphere is limited, partially due to the difficulty of their measurement. High-time-resolution (10 s) measurements of higher alkanes were performed using NO+ chemical ionization in proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (NO+ PTR-ToF-MS) at an urban site in Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and at a rural site in the North China Plain (NCP). High concentrations were observed in both environments, with significant diurnal variations. At both sites, SOA production from higher alkanes is estimated from their photochemical losses and SOA yields. Higher alkanes account for significant fractions of SOA formation at the two sites, with average contributions of 7.0 % ± 8.0 % in Guangzhou and 9.4 % ± 9.1 % in NCP, which are comparable to or even higher than both single-ring aromatics and naphthalenes. The significant contributions of higher alkanes to SOA formation suggests that they should be explicitly included in current models for SOA formation. Our work also highlights the importance of NO+ PTR-ToF-MS in measuring higher alkanes and quantifying their contributions to SOA formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particulate matter (PM) pollution in China is an emerging environmental issue which policy makers and the public have increasingly paid attention to. In order to investigate the characteristics, sources, and chemical processes of PM pollution in Guangzhou, field measurements were conducted from 20 November 2017 to 5 January 2018, with a time-of-flight aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ToF-ACSM) and other collocated instruments. Mass concentrations of non-refractory submicron particulate matter (NR-PM 1) measured by the ToF-ACSM correlated well with those of PM 2.5 or PM 1.1 measured by filter-based methods. The organic mass fraction increased from 45 % to 53 % when the air switched from non-pollution periods to pollution episodes (EPs), indicating significant roles of organic aerosols (OAs) during the whole study. Based on the mass spectra measured by the ToF-ACSM, positive matrix factorization (PMF) with the multilinear engine (ME-2) algorithm was performed to deconvolve OA into four factors, including hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA, 12 %), cooking OA (COA, 18 %), semi-volatile oxygenated OA (SVOOA, 30 %), and low-volatility oxygenated OA (LVOOA, 40 %). Furthermore, we found that SVOOA and nitrate were significantly contributed from local traffic emissions while sulfate and LVOOA were mostly attributed to regional pollutants. Comparisons between this work and other previous studies in China show that secondary organic aerosol (SOA) fraction in total OA increases spatially across China from the north to the south. Two distinctly opposite trends for NR-PM 1 formation were observed during non-pollution periods and pollution EPs. The ratio of secondary PM (SPM = SVOOA + LVOOA + sulfate + nitrate + ammonium) to primary PM (PPM = HOA + COA + chloride), together with peroxy radicals RO2∗ and ozone, increased with increasing NR-PM 1 concentration during non-pollution periods, while an opposite trend of these three quantities was observed during pollution EPs. Furthermore, oxidation degrees of both OA and SOA were investigated using the f44/f43 space and the results show that at least two OOA factors are needed to cover a large range of f44 and f43 in Guangzhou. Comparisons between our results and other laboratory studies imply that volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from traffic emissions, in particular from diesel combustion and aromatic compounds, are the most likely SOA precursors in Guangzhou. Peroxy radical RO2∗ was used as a tracer for SOA formed through gas-phase oxidation. For non-pollution periods, SOA concentration was reasonably correlated with RO2∗ concentration during both daytime and nighttime, suggesting that gas-phase oxidation was primarily responsible for SOA formation. However, there was no correlation between SOA and RO2∗ in pollution EPs, suggesting a dramatically changed mechanism for SOA formation. This conclusion can also be supported by different features of SOA in a van Krevelen diagram between non-pollution periods and pollution EPs. Furthermore, for pollution EPs, when NR-PM 1 mass concentration was divided into six segments, in each segment except for the lowest one SOA concentration was correlated moderately with RO2∗ concentration, suggesting that gas-phase oxidation still plays important roles in SOA formation. The intercepts of the above linear regressions, which likely correspond to the extent of other mechanisms (i.e., heterogeneous and multiphase reactions), increase with increasing NR-PM 1 mass concentration. Our results suggest that while gas-phase oxidation contributes predominantly to SOA formation during non-pollution periods, other mechanisms such as heterogeneous and multiphase reactions play more important roles in SOA formation during pollution EPs than gas-phase oxidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many studies have recently been done on understanding the sources and formation mechanisms of atmospheric aerosols at ground level. However, vertical profiles and sources of size-resolved particulate matter within the urban boundary layer are still lacking. In this study, vertical distribution characteristics of size-segregated particles were investigated at three observation platforms (ground level, 118 m, and 488 m) on the 610 m high Canton Tower in Guangzhou, China. Size-segregated aerosol samples were simultaneously collected at the three levels in autumn and winter. Major aerosol components, including water-soluble ions, organic carbon, and elemental carbon, were measured. The results showed that daily average fine-particle concentrations generally decreased with height. Concentrations of sulfate and ammonium in fine particles displayed shallow vertical gradients, and nitrate concentrations increased with height in autumn, while the chemical components showed greater variations in winter than in autumn. The size distributions of sulfate and ammonium in both seasons were characterized by a dominant unimodal mode with peaks in the size range of 0.44–1.0 µ m. In autumn, the nitrate size distribution was bimodal, peaking at 0.44–1.0 and 2.5–10 µ m, while in winter it was unimodal, implying that the formation mechanisms for nitrate particles were different in the two seasons. Our results suggest that the majority of the sulfate and nitrate is formed from aqueous-phase reactions, and we attribute coarse-mode nitrate formation at the measurement site to the heterogeneous reactions of gaseous nitric acid on existing sea-derived coarse particles in autumn. Case studies further showed that atmospheric aqueous-phase and heterogeneous reactions could be important mechanisms for sulfate and nitrate formation, which, in combination with adverse weather conditions such as temperature inversion and calm wind, led to haze formation during autumn and winter in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government launched the Air Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan in 2013, and various stringent measures have since been implemented, which have resulted in significant decreases in emissions and ambient concentrations of primary pollutants such as SO2 , NOx , and particulate matter (PM). However, surface ozone (O3) concentrations have still been increasing in urban areas across the country. In a previous analysis, we examined in detail the roles of meteorological variation during 2013–2017 in the summertime surface O3 trend in various regions of China. In this study, we evaluated the effect of changes in multi-pollutant emissions from anthropogenic activities on O3 levels during the same period by using an up-to-date regional chemical transport model (WRF-CMAQ) driven by an interannual anthropogenic emission inventory. The Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model was improved with regard to heterogeneous reactions of reactive gases on aerosol surfaces, which led to better model performance in reproducing the ambient concentrations of those gases. The model simulations showed that the maximum daily 8 h average (MDA8) O3 mixing ratio in urban areas increased by 0.46 ppbv per year (ppbva-1) (p=0.001) from 2013 to 2017. In contrast, a slight decrease in MDA8 O3 by 0.17 ppbva-1 (p=0.005) in rural areas was predicted, mainly attributable to the NOx emission reduction. The effects of changes in individual pollutant emissions on O3 were also simulated. The reduction of NOx emission increased the O3 levels in urban areas due to the nonlinear NOx and volatile organic compound (VOC) chemistry and decreasing aerosol effects; the slight increase in VOC emissions enhanced the O3 levels; the reduction of PM emissions increased the O3 levels by enhancing the photolysis rates and reducing the loss of reactive gases on aerosol surfaces; and the reduction of SO2 emissions resulted in a drastic decrease in sulfate concentrations, which increased O3 through aerosol effects. In contrast to the unfavorable effect of the above changes in pollutant emissions on efforts to reduce surface O3 , the reduction of CO emissions did help to decrease the O3 level in recent years. The dominant cause of increasing O3 due to changes in anthropogenic emissions varied geographically. In Beijing, NOx and PM emission reductions were the two largest causes of the O3 increase; in Shanghai, the reduction of NOx and increase in VOC emissions were the two major causes; in Guangzhou, NOx reduction was the primary cause; in Chengdu, the PM and SO2 emission decreases contributed most to the O3 increase. Regarding the effects of decreasing concentrations of aerosols, the drop in heterogeneous uptake of reactive gases – mainly HO2 and O3 – was found to be more important than the increase in photolysis rates. The adverse effect of the reductions of NOx , SO2 , and PM emissions on O3 abatement in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chengdu would have been avoided if the anthropogenic VOCs emission had been reduced by 24 %, 23 %, 20 %, and 16 %, respectively, from 2013 to 2017. Our analysis revealed that the NOx reduction in recent years has helped to contain the total O3 production in China. However, to reduce O3 levels in major urban and industrial areas, VOC emission controls should be added to the current NOx - SO2 -PM policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Black carbon (BC) aerosols have been widely recognized as a vital climate forcer in the atmosphere. Amplification of light absorption can occur due to coatings on BC during atmospheric aging, an effect that remains uncertain in accessing the radiative forcing of BC. Existing studies on the absorption enhancement factor (Eabs) have poor coverage on both seasonal and diurnal scales. In this study, we applied a recently developed minimum R squared (MRS) method, which can cover both seasonal and diurnal scales, for Eabs quantification. Using field measurement data in Guangzhou, the aims of this study are to explore (1) the temporal dynamics of BC optical properties at seasonal (wet season, 31 July–10 September; dry season, 15 November 2017–15 January 2018) and diel scales (1 h time resolution) in the typical urban environment and (2) the influencing factors on Eabs temporal variability. Mass absorption efficiency at 520 nm by primary aerosols (MAE p520) determined by the MRS method exhibited a strong seasonality (8.6 m 2 g -1 in the wet season and 16.8 m 2 g -1 in the dry season). Eabs520 was higher in the wet season (1.51±0.50) and lower in the dry season (1.29±0.28). Absorption Ångström exponent (AAE 470–660) in the dry season (1.46±0.12) was higher than that in the wet season (1.37±0.10). Collective evidence showed that the active biomass burning (BB) in the dry season effectively altered the optical properties of BC, leading to elevated MAE, MAE p and AAE in the dry season compared to those in the wet season. Diurnal Eabs520 was positively correlated with AAE 470–660 (R2=0.71) and negatively correlated with the AE33 aerosol loading compensation parameter (k) (R2=0.74) in the wet season, but these correlations were significantly weaker in the dry season, which may be related to the impact of BB. This result suggests that during the wet season, the lensing effect was more likely dominating the AAE diurnal variability rather than the contribution from brown carbon (BrC). Secondary processing can affect Eabs diurnal dynamics. The Eabs520 exhibited a clear dependency on the ratio of secondary organic carbon to organic carbon (SOC/OC), confirming the contribution of secondary organic aerosols to Eabs ; Eabs520 correlated well with nitrate and showed a clear dependence on temperature. This new finding implies that gas–particle partitioning of semivolatile compounds may potentially play an important role in steering the diurnal fluctuation of Eabs520. In the dry season, the diurnal variability in Eabs520 was associated with photochemical aging as evidenced by the good correlation (R2= 0.69) between oxidant concentrations (Ox=O3+NO2) and Eabs520. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limiting fuel sulfur content (FSC) is a widely adopted approach for reducing ship emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM), particularly in emission control areas (ECAs), but its impact on the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is still not well understood. In this study, emissions from ships at berth in Guangzhou, southern China, were characterized before and after the implementation of the fuel switch policy (IFSP) with an FSC limit of 0.5 % in the Pearl River Delta ECA (ECA-PRD). After IFSP, the emission factors (EFs) of SO2 and PM 2.5 for the coastal vessels decreased by 78 % and 56 % on average, respectively; however, the EFs of the VOCs were 1807±1746 mg kg -1 , approximately 15 times that of 118±56.1 mg kg -1 before IFSP. This dramatic increase in the emissions of the VOCs might have been largely due to the replacement of high-sulfur residual fuel oil with low-sulfur diesel or heavy oils, which are typically richer in short-chain hydrocarbons. Moreover, reactive alkenes surpassed alkanes to become the dominant group among the VOCs, and low-carbon-number VOCs, such as ethylene, propene and isobutane, became the dominant species after IFSP. As a result of the largely elevated EFs of the reactive alkenes and aromatics after IFSP, the emitted VOCs per kilogram of fuel burned had nearly 29 times greater ozone formation potential (OFP) and approximately 2 times greater secondary organic aerosol formation potential (SOAFP) than those before IFSP. Unlike the coastal vessels, the river vessels in the region used diesel fuels consistently and were not affected by the fuel switch policy, but the EFs of their VOCs were 90 % greater than those of the coastal vessels after IFSP, with approximately 120 % greater fuel-based OFP and 70 %–140 % greater SOAFP. The results from this study suggest that while the fuel switch policy could effectively reduce SO2 and PM emissions, and thus help control PM 2.5 pollution, it will also lead to greater emissions of reactive VOCs, which may threaten ozone pollution control in harbor cities. This change for coastal or ocean-going vessels, in addition to the large amounts of reactive VOCs from the river vessels, raises regulatory concerns for ship emissions of reactive VOCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen-containing organic compounds (NOCs) substantially contribute to light-absorbing organic aerosols, although the atmospheric processes responsible for the secondary formation of these compounds are poorly understood. In this study, seasonal atmospheric processing of NOCs is investigated using single-particle mass spectrometry in urban Guangzhou from 2013 to 2014. The relative abundance of NOCs is found to be strongly enhanced when they are internally mixed with photochemically produced secondary oxidized organics (i.e., formate, acetate, pyruvate, methylglyoxal, glyoxylate, oxalate, malonate, and succinate) and ammonium (NH4+). Moreover, both the hourly detected particle number and the relative abundance of NOCs are highly correlated with those of secondary oxidized organics and NH4+. Therefore, it is hypothesized that the secondary formation of NOCs is most likely linked to oxidized organics and NH4+. Results from both multiple linear regression analysis and positive matrix factorization analysis further show that the relative abundance of NOCs could be well predicted (R2 > 0.7, p < 0.01) by oxidized organics and NH4+. Interestingly, the relative abundance of NOCs is inversely correlated with NH4+ , whereas their number fractions are positively correlated. This result suggests that although the formation of NOCs does require the involvement of NH3/NH4+ , the relative amount of NH4+ may have a negative effect. Higher humidity and NOx likely facilitates the conversion of oxidized organics to NOCs. Due to the relatively high oxidized organics and NH3/NH4+ , the relative contributions of NOCs in summer and fall were higher than those in spring and winter. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first direct field observation study reporting a close association between NOCs and both oxidized organics and NH4+. These findings have substantial implications for the role of NH4+ in the atmosphere, particularly in models that predict the evolution and deposition of NOCs. Highlights. NOCs were highly internally mixed with photochemically produced secondary oxidized organics NOCs could be well predicted by the variations of these oxidized organics and NH4+ Higher relative humidity and NOx may facilitate the conversion of these oxidized organics to NOCs [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization in China has led to heavy traffic flows in street networks within cities, especially in eastern China, the economically developed region. This has increased the risk of exposure to vehicle-related pollutants. To evaluate the impact of vehicle emissions and provide an on-road emission inventory with higher spatiotemporal resolution for street-network air quality models, in this study, we developed the Real-time On-road Emission (ROE v1.0) model to calculate street-scale on-road hot emissions by using real-time big data for traffic provided by the Gaode Map navigation application. This Python-based model obtains street-scale traffic data from the map application programming interface (API), which are open-access and updated every minute for each road segment. The results of application of the model to Guangzhou, one of the three major cities in China, showed on-road vehicle emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NOx), hydrocarbons (HCs), PM 2.5 , and PM 10 to be 35.22×104 , 12.05×104 , 4.10×104 , 0.49×104 , and 0.55×104 Mg yr -1 , respectively. The spatial distribution reveals that the emission hotspots are located in some highway-intensive areas and suburban town centers. Emission contribution shows that the dominant contributors are light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) in urban areas and LDVs and heavy-duty trucks (HDTs) in suburban areas, indicating that the traffic control policies regarding trucks in urban areas are effective. In this study, the Model of Urban Network of Intersecting Canyons and Highways (MUNICH) was applied to investigate the impact of traffic volume change on street-scale photochemistry in the urban areas by using the on-road emission results from the ROE model. The modeling results indicate that the daytime NOx concentrations on national holidays are 26.5 % and 9.1 % lower than those on normal weekdays and normal weekends, respectively. Conversely, the national holiday O3 concentrations exceed normal weekday and normal weekend amounts by 13.9 % and 10.6 %, respectively, owing to changes in the ratio of emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and NOx. Thus, not only the on-road emissions but also other emissions should be controlled in order to improve the air quality in Guangzhou. More significantly, the newly developed ROE model may provide promising and effective methodologies for analyzing real-time street-level traffic emissions and high-resolution air quality assessment for more typical cities or urban districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experimental studies of the daily urban surface energy balance (UEB) in high-rise high-density urban districts are still few so far. This paper, experimentally investigated the daily UEB in such urban model by the open-path eddy covariance system in the scale-model outdoor field experiment in the suburb of Guangzhou which locating the East Campus of Sun Yat-sen University from August to December, 2017,including 3 days in summer,11 days in autumn and 9 days in winter. The idealized urban model consist of 2900 concrete square building models (58 rows, 50 columns) with the height of H=1.2m and building width of B=0.5m. The street width is W=0.5m producing street aspect ratio of H/W=2.4 and building area density of λp=0.25 and frontal area density of λf=0.6. The ground area of outdoor field measurement is 2900 m2 with concrete floor and far away from the surrounding buildings in most wind directions. The influence of the surrounding buildings under nine wind directions are evaluated by wind tunnel experiments. Most of the time the models are empty with building wall thickness of 1.5cm, to raise the urban thermal storage, we also measured the UEB with all buildings models filled with water in November 2017. And we make a comparison between clear sky day and occasionally cloudy day to analyze the different features of the UEB in various weather conditions. We also calculated the building surface heat flux (i.e. urban heat storage items in by energy balance) by using the measured history of temperature variations at building surfaces and within building models by thermal couples. For empty building models, the results indicate that the features of the UEB as follows:(1) In clear sky conditions, the diurnal variations of net radiation(Q*), solar shortwave radiation and surface longwave radiation in urban areas show a single peak, and the values of Q* are positive in the daytime and negative at night. But in occasionally cloudy day, more complicated characteristics may occur in cloudy conditions. (2) Due to the impermeability of concrete underlying surface, the normalized sensible heat flux QH/ Q* is much bigger than the normalized latent heat flux QE/Q*. Moreover the QH/ Q*rises when the friction velocity (u*) increases. (3)The heat storage (ΔQS) acts as the main source and sink item in the surface energy balance. The values of ΔQS / Q*in summer (0.48) tend to be much larger than that in winter (0.25). Finally, with building models filled with water, ΔQS / Q*is found to be greater than that with empty building model. KEY WORD: Urban surface energy balance (UEB), Scale-model outdoor field experiment, Diurnal variations, Thermal storage.Acknowledgements:This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No 51478486 and 41875015) and National Natural Science Foundation--Outstanding Youth Foundation (grant No. 41622502). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of the Same Frequency Test and Recurrence Level of Rainstorm and Flood in the Design of Medium and Small Watersheds in South ChinaZHAO Lingling1,2*，LIU Changming2，CHEN Zishen3(1.Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou 510002, China: 2.Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101；3. College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing,100875，4. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou,510275)Abstract: The rationality of design flood has a direct impact on the safety of people's lives and property in flood protection zones.The design flood is deduced from the design storm based on the assumption that the rainstorm flood has the same frequency in the current flood design of small and medium-sized basins. Therefore, the assumption of the same frequency of rainstorm flood and the probability distribution of rainstorm flood encounter have become the key to verify the rationality of design flood in small and medium watersheds. Based on the hourly rainstorm and flood observation data from 1967 to 2013 in the typical heavy rainfall basin of Caojiang River in the upper reaches of Jianjiang River, this paper firstly analyzes the marginal distribution of the maximum surface rainfall and the maximum flood peak discharge of corresponding fields, then analyzes the encounter probability of the joint distribution of rainstorm and flood peak, and calculates the design recurrence level. The main conclusions are as follows: 1) the probability of the same frequency of rainstorm and flood is small in the basin; more rainstorm and flood appear in the same frequency in the corresponding period of rainstorm and flood field; 2) the condition that the peak discharge is greater than or equal to the design value of a certain frequency when the rainfall is greater than or equal to the design value of a certain frequency in the basin. The probability decreases with the decrease of the probability of excess value; 3) The probability of rainfall and flood peak discharge encountering conditions shows that there are many flood control design criteria; 4) Compared with the "or" joint recurrence period and the "and" recurrence period, the Kendall recurrence period more accurately reflects the risk rate of R-Q combination, and the maximum probability principle does not predict the risk. The Kendall recurrence period design value, which combines the probability of surfacerainfall and flood peak discharge encountering in the same basin, can provide more reference for the selection of flood control standards and risk management. Key words: design storm flood; hydrologic excerpt table; encounter probability; Kendall recurrence period; small and medium watershed [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brown carbon (BrC) is a special type of organic aerosol (OA), capable of absorbing solar radiation from near-ultraviolet (UV) to visible wavelengths, which may lead to an increased aerosol radiative effect in the atmosphere. While high concentrations of OAs have been observed in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region of China, the optical properties and corresponding radiative forcing of BrC in the PRD are still not well understood. In this work, we conducted a set of comprehensive measurements of atmospheric particulate matter from 29 November 2014 to 2 January 2015 to investigate aerosol compositions, optical properties, source origins, and radiative forcing effects at a suburban station in Guangzhou. The particle absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) was deduced and utilized to distinguish light absorption by BrC from that by black carbon (BC). The results showed that the average absorption contributions of BrC were 34.1±8.0 % at 370 nm, 23.7±7.3 % at 470 nm, 16.0±6.7 % at 520 nm, 13.0±5.4 % at 590 nm, and 8.7±4.3 % at 660 nm. A sensitivity analysis of the evaluation of the absorption Ångström exponent of BC (AAE BC) was conducted based on the Mie theory calculation assuming that the BC-containing aerosol was mixed with the core–shell and external configurations. The corresponding uncertainty in AAE BC was acquired. We found that variations in the imaginary refractive index (RI) of the BC core can significantly affect the estimation of AAE BC. However, AAE BC was relatively less sensitive to the real part of the RI of the BC core and was least sensitive to the real part of the RI of the non-light-absorbing shell. BrC absorption was closely related to aerosol potassium cation content (K+), a common tracer of biomass burning emissions, which was most likely associated with straw burning in the rural area of the western PRD. Diurnal variation in BrC absorption revealed that primary organic aerosols had a larger BrC absorption capacity than secondary organic aerosols (SOAs). Radiative transfer simulations showed that BrC absorption may cause 2.3±1.8 W m -2 radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) and contribute to 15.8±4.4 % of the aerosol warming effect. A chart was constructed to conveniently assess the BrC radiative forcing efficiency in the studied area with reference to certain aerosol single-scattering albedo (SSA) and BrC absorption contributions at various wavelengths. Evidently, the BrC radiative forcing efficiency was higher at shorter wavelengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To grasp the key factors affecting particle mass scattering efficiency (MSE), particle mass and number size distribution, PM 2.5 and PM 10 and their major chemical compositions, and the particle scattering coefficient (bsp) under dry conditions were measured at an urban site in Guangzhou, southern China, during 2015–2016. On an annual average, 10±2 %, 48±7 % and 42±8 % of PM 10 mass were in the condensation, droplet and coarse modes, respectively, with mass mean aerodynamic diameters (MMADs) of 0.78±0.07 in the droplet mode and 4.57±0.42 µm in the coarse mode. The identified chemical species mass concentrations can explain 79±3 %, 82±6 % and 57±6 % of the total particle mass in the condensation, droplet and coarse mode, respectively. Organic matter (OM) and elemental carbon (EC) in the condensation mode, OM, (NH4)2SO4 , NH4NO3 , and crustal element oxides in the droplet mode, and crustal element oxides, OM, and CaSO4 in the coarse mode, were the dominant chemical species in their respective modes. The measured bsp can be reconstructed to the level of 91±10 % using Mie theory with input of the estimated chemically resolved number concentrations of NaCl, NaNO3 , Na2SO4 , NH4NO3 , (NH4)2SO4 , K2SO4 , CaSO4 , Ca(NO3)2 , OM, EC, crustal element oxides and unidentified fraction. MSEs of particle and individual chemical species were underestimated by less than 13 % in any season based on the estimated bsp and chemical species mass concentrations. Seasonal average MSEs varied in the range of 3.5±0.1 to 3.9±0.2 m 2 g -1 for fine particles (aerodynamic diameter smaller than 2.1 µm), which was mainly caused by seasonal variations in the mass fractions and MSEs of the dominant chemical species (OM, NH4NO3 , (NH4)2SO4) in the droplet mode. MSEs of the dominant chemical species were determined by their lognormal size-distribution parameters, including MMADs and standard deviation (σ) in the droplet mode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric oxidation capacity is the basis for converting freshly emitted substances into secondary products and is dominated by reactions involving hydroxyl radicals (OH) during daytime. In this study, we present in situ measurements of ROx radical (hydroxy OH, hydroperoxy HO2 , and organic peroxy RO2) precursors and products; the measurements are carried out in four Chinese megacities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Chongqing) during photochemically polluted seasons. The atmospheric oxidation capacity is evaluated using an observation-based model and radical chemistry precursor measurements as input. The radical budget analysis illustrates the importance of HONO and HCHO photolysis, which account for ∼50 % of the total primary radical sources. The radical propagation is efficient due to abundant NO in urban environments. Hence, the production rate of secondary pollutants, that is, ozone (and fine-particle precursors (H2SO4 , HNO3 , and extremely low volatility organic compounds, ELVOCs) is rapid, resulting in secondary air pollution. The ozone budget demonstrates its high production in urban areas; also, its rapid transport to downwind areas results in rapid increase in local ozone concentrations. The O3 – NOx –VOC (volatile organic compound) sensitivity tests show that ozone production is VOC-limited and that alkenes and aromatics should be mitigated first for ozone pollution control in the four studied megacities. In contrast, NOx emission control (that is, a decrease in NOx) leads to more severe ozone pollution. With respect to fine-particle pollution, the role of the HNO3 – NO3 partitioning system is investigated using a thermal dynamic model (ISORROPIA 2). Under high relative humidity (RH) and ammonia-rich conditions, nitric acid converts into nitrates. This study highlights the efficient radical chemistry that maintains the atmospheric oxidation capacity in Chinese megacities and results in secondary pollution characterized by ozone and fine particles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guangzhou, one of China's megacities, is beset with frequent occurrence of high-concentration ozone events. In this study, online instruments were used to simultaneously monitor ozone, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at GPACS (the Guangzhou Panyu Atmospheric Composition Station) of the China Meteorological Administration, from June 2011 to May 2012, in order to determine their characteristics, the effect of VOCs on ozone photochemical production and the relationship between VOC=NOx ratio and ozone formation. The results showed that during the observation period, the seasonal variation of ozone concentration was lower in spring and winter compared to summer and autumn, which is opposite that for VOCs and NOx. In terms of VOCs, aromatics had the largest ozone formation potential, among which toluene, xylenes, ethylbenzene, 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene and 1,3,5- trimethylbenzene were the most important species, with a total contribution of about 44%. As the VOC=NOx ratios were very high during high-concentration ozone events that occur all year round, we speculate ozone production was likely to be NOx-limited regime (12:00-16:00 LT) in Guangzhou. Further investigation based on numerical models is needed in the future to obtain more detailed and robust conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method was developed to estimate hygroscopic growth factor (f(RH)) of aerosol light-scattering coefficient (bsp), making use of the measured size- and chemically resolved aerosol samples. In this method, chemical composition of the measured aerosol samples were first reconstructed using the equilibrium model ISORROPIA II. The reconstructed chemical composition, which varies with relative humidity (RH), was then employed to calculate bsp and hygroscopic growth factor of bsp (fsp(RH)) using the Mie model. Furthermore, the calculated fsp(RH) was fitted with an empirical curve. To evaluate the applicability of fsp(RH), the curve of fsp(RH) was used to correct the long-term records of the measured bsp from the values under comparative dry conditions to the ones under ambient RH conditions. Compared with the original bsp data, the fsp(RH)-corrected bsp had a higher linear correlation with, and a smaller discrepancy from, the bsp derived directly from visibility and absorption measurements. The fsp(RH) determined here was further compared with that reported in previous studies. The method described in this manuscript provides an alternative approach to derive credible fsp(RH) with high accuracy and has many potential applications in aerosol-related research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-precision land survey data is important foundation for fine management of land resources and enhancement of land use efficiency. The main method for land survey is remote sensing (RS) survey. However, the accuracy of data gained through this method is susceptible to image map, boundary interpretation, plotting process and other factors. To improve the accuracy, the method of precision correction of land investigation data that is based on high resolution image data with geometric correction model was discussed in detail. Technical test was conducted in some area of GuangZhou in China, and experimental results showed that the method can improve the accuracy of land survey data effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing evidence suggests that the size-resolved mixing state of carbon-containing particles is very critical in determining their optical properties, atmospheric lifetime, and impact on the environment. However, still little is known about the mixing state of particles in the urban area of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, China. To investigate the mixing state of submicron carbon-containing particles, measurements were carried out during spring and fall periods of 2010 using a single-particle aerosol mass spectrometer (SPAMS). Approximately 700 000 particles for each period were detected. This is the first report on the size-resolved mixing state of carbon-containing particles by direct observations in the PRD region. Cluster analysis of single-particle mass spectra was applied to identify carbon-containing particle classes. These classes represented ~80% and ~90% of all the detected particles for spring and fall periods, respectively. Carbon-containing particle classes mainly consisted of biomass/biofuel burning particles (Biomass), organic carbon (OC), fresh elemental carbon (EC-fresh), internally mixed OC and EC (ECOC), internally mixed EC with sulfate (EC-Sulfate), vanadium-containing ECOC (VECOC), and amines-containing particles (Amine). In spring, the top three ranked carbon-containing particle classes were ECOC (26.1 %), Biomass (23.6 %) and OC (10 %), respectively. However, the fraction of Biomass particles increased remarkably and predominated (61.0 %), while the fraction of ECOC (3.0 %) and V-ECOC (0.1 %) significantly decreased in fall. To highlight the influence of monsoon on the properties of carbon-containing particles in urban Guangzhou, their size distributions, mixing state, and aerosol acidity were compared between spring and fall seasons. In addition, a case study was also performed to investigate how the formation of fog and haze influenced the mixing state of carboncontaining particles. These results could improve our understanding of the mixing state of carbon-containing particles, and may also be helpful in modeling the climate forcing of aerosol in the PRD region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the urban area of Guangzhou, observations on aerosol light extinction effect were conducted at a monitoring site of the South China Institute of Environmental Sciences (SCIES) during April 2009, July 2009, October 2009 and January 2010. The main goal of these observations is to recognise the impact of relative humidity (RH) and particles number distribution on aerosol light extinction. PM2.5 was sampled by Model PQ200 air sampler; ions and OC/EC in PM2.5 were identified by the Dionex ion chromatography and the DRI model 2001 carbon analyser, respectively; particles number size distribution was measured by TSI 3321 APS, while total light scattering coefficient was measured by TSI 3563 Nephelometer. Chemical composition of PM2.5 was reconstructed by the model ISORROPIA II. As a result, possible major components in PM2.5 were (NH4)2SO4, Na2SO4, K2SO4, NH4NO3, HNO3, water, POM and EC. Regarding ambient RH, mass concentration of PM2.5 ranged from 26.1 to 279.1 μgm-3 and had an average of 94.8, 44.6, 95.4 and 130.8 μgm-3 in April, July, October and January, respectively. With regard to the total mass of PM2.5, inorganic species, water, POM, EC and the Residual accounted for 34-47 %, 19-31 %, 14-20 %, 6-8% and 8-17 %, respectively. Under the assumption of "internal mixture", optical properties of PM0.5-20 were estimated following the Mie Model. Optical refractive index, hygroscopic growth factor and the dry aerosol density required by the Mie Model were determined with an understanding of chemical composition of PM2.5.With these three parameters and the validated particles number size distribution of PM0.5-20, the temporal variation trend of optical property of PM0.5-20 was estimated with good accuracy. The highest average of bep,pm0.5-20 was 300 Mm-1 in April while the lowest one was 78.6 Mm-1 in July. Regarding size distribution of bep,pm0.5-20, peak value was almost located in the diameter range between 0.5 and 1.0 μm. Furthermore, hygroscopic growth of optical properties of PM0.5-20 largely depended on RH. As RH increased, bep,pm0.5-20 grew and favoured a more rapid growth when aerosol had a high content of inorganic water-soluble salts. Averagely, ƒbep,pm0.5-20 enlarged 1.76 times when RH increased from 20% to 90 %.With regard to the temporal variation of ambient RH, ƒbep,pm0.5-20 was 1.29, 1.23, 1.14 and 1.26 on average in April, July, October and January, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) were measured during PRIDE-PRD 2006 summer campaign by using a semi-continuous thermal-optical carbon analyzer at a rural site, Back Garden (BG), which is located 50 km to the northwest of Guangzhou City. Together with the online EC/OC analyzer, various kinds of instruments related to aerosol chemical properties were employed here, which provided a good opportunity to check data quality. The concentrations of OC correlated well with the mass of organic matter (OM) and water soluble organic carbon (WSOC), implying the reliability of the data measured in this campaign. The average OC concentrations in fine particle for three typical periods during the campaign (local emission influence, typhoon and precipitation and normal days) were 28.1 µgCm-3, 4.0 µgCm-3 and 5.7 µgCm-3, respectively; and EC were 11.6 µgCm-3, 1.8 µgCm-3, and 3.3 µgCm-3, respectively. The diurnal patterns of EC and OC during the campaign were higher at night and in early morning than daytime, which was probably caused by the primary emission and accumulation in the occurrence of low boundary layer. Compared with the constant diurnal enhancement ratios of EC, the enhancement ratio of OC (OC versus (COCObackground)) kept in a relative high level in the afternoon, with a similar diurnal profile to oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA), due to the strong photochemical formation of OC. Here, a modified EC tracer method was used to estimate the formation of secondary organic carbon (SOC). These results showed that the average SOC concentration (normal days) at BG site was about 2.0±2.3 µgCm-3, and the SOC fraction in OC could reach up to 80% with the average of 47 %. The modified approach in this study proved to be effective and reliable for SOC estimation based on good correlations between estimated SOC versus OOA or WSOC, and estimated POC versus hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol (HOA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Size-resolved chemical composition, mixing state, and cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) activity of aerosol particles in polluted mega-city air and biomass burning smoke were measured during the PRIDE-PRD2006 campaign near Guangzhou, China, using an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS), a volatility tandem differential mobility analyzer (VTDMA), and a continuous-flow CCN counter (DMT-CCNC). The size-dependence and temporal variations of the effective average hygroscopicity parameter for CCN-active particles (κa) could be parameterized as a function of organic and inorganic mass fractions (forg, finorg) determined by the AMS: κa,p,=κorg ⋅ forg + κinorg ⋅ finorg. The characteristic κ values of organic and inorganic components were similar to those observed in other continental regions of the world: κorg≈0.1 and κinorg≈0.6. The campaign average κa values increased with particle size from ∼0.25 at ∼50 nm to ∼0.4 at ∼200 nm, while forg decreased with particle size. At ∼50 nm, forg was on average 60% and increased to almost 100% during a biomass burning event. The VTDMA results and complementary aerosol optical data suggest that the large fractions of CCN-inactive particles observed at low supersaturations (up to 60% at S≤0.27%) were externally mixed weakly CCN-active soot particles with low volatility (diameter reduction <5% at 300 °C) and effective hygroscopicity parameters around κLV≈0.01. A proxy for the effective average hygroscopicity of the total ensemble of CCN-active particles including weakly CCN-active particles (κt) could be parameterized as a function of κa,p and the number fraction of low volatility particles determined by VTDMA (ΦLV):κt,p=κa,p--ΦLV ⋅ (κa,p--κLV). Based on κ values derived from AMS and VTDMA data, the observed CCN number concentrations (NCCN,S≈10²-- 104 cm--3 at S = 0.068--0.47%) could be efficiently predicted from the measured particle number size distribution. The mean relative deviations between observed and predicted CCN concentrations were ∼10% when using κt,p, and they increased to ∼20% when using only κa,p. The mean relative deviations were not higher (∼20%) when using an approximate continental average value of κ ≈0.3, although the constant κ value cannot account for the observed temporal variations in particle composition and mixing state (diurnal cycles and biomass burning events). Overall, the results confirm that on a global and climate modeling scale an average value of κ≈0.3 can be used for approximate predictions of CCN number concentrations in continental boundary layer air when aerosol size distribution data are available without information about chemical composition. Bulk or size-resolved data on aerosol chemical composition enable improved CCN predictions resolving regional and temporal variations, but the composition data need to be highly accurate and complemented by information about particle mixing state to achieve high precision (relative deviations <20%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ measurements of the mass concentration of black carbon (BC) and mixing ratios of carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) were made at Guangzhou, an urban measurement site in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), China, in July 2006. The average ± standard deviation (SD) concentrations of BC, CO, and CO2 were 4.7±2.3 μgC m-3, 798±459 ppbv, and 400±13 ppmv, respectively. The trends of these species were mainly controlled by synoptic-scale changes in meteorology during the campaign. Based on back trajectories, data are analyzed separately for two different air mass types representing northerly and southerly flows. The northerly air masses, which constituted ~25% of the campaign, originated mostly in the PRD and hence represent observations on regional scales. On the other hand, during southerly flow (~75%), the measurements were influenced by dilution due to cleaner marine air. The diurnal patterns of BC, CO, and CO2 exhibited peak concentrations during the morning and evening hours coinciding with rush-hour traffic. The ratios of OC/BC were lower during the morning hour peaks in the concentrations of primary pollutants due to their fresh emissions mainly from vehicular traffic in Guangzhou. The diurnal variations of BC observed in southerly air masses tended to follow the traffic patterns of heavy-duty vehicles (HDV) in Guangzhou, while the roles of other sources need to be investigated. The slopes of ΔBC/1CO, ΔBC/ΔCO2, and ΔCO/ΔCO2 observed during northerly flows were 0.0045 μgC m-3/ppbv, 0.13 μgC m-3/ppmv, and 49.4 ppbv/ppmv, respectively, agreeing reasonably with their respective emission ratios derived from regional emission inventories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]