Influences of characteristic meteorological conditions on atmospheric carbonyls in Beijing, China

Atmospheric pollutants are controlled not only by their production rates but also by meteorological conditions. The influences of dust storm, sauna weather (haze with high temperature and high humidity), wet precipitation and wind speed on atmospheric carbonyls in Beijing were investigated. During a severe dust episode (April 17, 2006), the mixing ratios of carbonyls were significantly elevated to 13–27 ppbV from 7 to 13 ppbV in the previous non-dust days (April 15 and 16) with the increasing extents of 38–154%. The accumulating effect and the lower photolysis rate in the dust day may be responsible for the increases of carbonyls' levels. Additionally, the contribution from heterogeneous reactions occurring on dust particles to formaldehyde and acetaldehyde cannot be ruled out. During the period of typical sauna weather, the concentrations of atmospheric carbonyls increased to 18–60 ppbV from 10 to 17 ppbV before the sauna days. The air mass over Beijing during the sauna days was controlled by a subtropical anticyclone and the boundary layer became quite stable, which was beneficial to the rapid accumulation of air pollutants including carbonyls. Wet precipitation was found to be an effective removal process to the atmospheric carbonyls. After one-hour of rain in summer, the total concentrations of atmospheric carbonyls decreased to less than half of that before the rainfall. The similar temporal varying patterns of carbonyls and inorganic ions in rainwater indicated that carbonyls were mainly washed out from the atmosphere into rainwater as inorganic ions were. Strong wind could evidently dilute atmospheric carbonyls and a negative correlation was found between wind speeds and the concentrations of carbonyls in spring in Beijing.