Chemical characteristics of air masses from different urban and industrial centers in the Huabei region of China

North China, or Huabei in Chinese, is one of the most severely polluted regions in China. There are many large, complex and strong emission sources in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan (together called Jing-Jin-Tang in Chinese) and other urban and industrial centers in Huabei, and the chemical characteristics of air masses coming from these pollution centers are expected to be quite different. As part of the project “Influence of Pollution on Aerosols and Cloud Microphysics in North China (IPAC-NC)”, surface ozone and related trace gases were measured at the Xin'an rural station (39.73°N, 117.51°E), located in the central part of larger Jing-Jin-Tang area, during 2 April-16 May 2006. Here we investigate the chemical characteristics and impact of air masses from these different pollution hotspots on the regional distributions of ozone and nitrogen oxides in Huabei, based on measurement data as well as a regional chemical transport model. Simulated reactive nitrogen compounds are attributed to the different emission sources in the Huabei region using the tracer-tagging method implemented in the model. We find that the chemical characteristics of pollution plumes from different urban and industrial centers are rather different. The OPEx, defined as ozone production efficiency of nitrogen oxides (NOx), for general pollution plumes from Beijing, Tianjin, Tangshan and Shijiazhuang are estimated to be 3.35, 2.75, 1.43 and 2.33 mol mol−1, respectively. During the IPAC-NC field campaign period, the Xin'an site was influenced alternatively by air masses from Beijing and Tianjin megacities and the Tangshan industrial area. The estimated OPEx in Beijing, Tianjin and Tangshan air masses arriving at Xin'an are comparable to those in their general pollution plumes. This indicates that air masses from different urban and industrial centers in Huabei also maintain their different chemical characteristics while being transported to the rural areas.

► The tracer-tagging technique was applied in a regional chemical transport model.
► Chemical characteristics of plumes from major cities in Huabei were investigated.
► OPEx in the plumes from different urban and industrial centers are very different.