Ozone pollution mitigation strategy informed by long-term trends of atmospheric oxidation capacity

Tropospheric ozone pollution is a critical air-quality concern in China. However, the most effective mitigation approach remains unclear, with prioritizing the reduction of volatile organic compounds or nitrogen oxides (NO X ) currently still under debate. Here we analyse observational measurements...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature geoscience 2024, Vol.17 (1), p.20-25
Main Authors: Wang, Wenjie, Li, Xin, Cheng, Yafang, Parrish, David D., Ni, Ruijing, Tan, Zhaofeng, Liu, Ying, Lu, Sihua, Wu, Yusheng, Chen, Shiyi, Lu, Keding, Hu, Min, Zeng, Limin, Shao, Min, Huang, Cheng, Tian, Xudong, Leung, K. M., Chen, Liangfu, Fan, Meng, Zhang, Qiang, Rohrer, Franz, Wahner, Andreas, Pöschl, Ulrich, Su, Hang, Zhang, Yuanhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/172/169/824
704/172/4081
Air pollution
Air quality
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth science
Earth Sciences
Earth System Sciences
Emission measurements
Emission standards
Emissions
Environmental monitoring
Environmental science
Geochemistry
Geology
Geophysics/Geodesy
Hydroxyl radicals
Laboratories
Megacities
Mitigation
Nitrogen oxides
Organic compounds
Outdoor air quality
Oxidants
Oxidation
Oxidizing agents
Ozone
Photochemicals
Pollution control
Trends
Tropospheric ozone
Turnover rate
VOCs
Volatile organic compounds
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Summary:Tropospheric ozone pollution is a critical air-quality concern in China. However, the most effective mitigation approach remains unclear, with prioritizing the reduction of volatile organic compounds or nitrogen oxides (NO X ) currently still under debate. Here we analyse observational measurements of ozone in August, as well as its precursors, from urban Beijing between 2006 and 2020. We show that, despite a continuous increase in the primary atmospheric oxidant (hydroxyl radical, OH), ozone increased until 2014 and then decreased. This ozone trend can be explained by changes in OH turnover rate, primarily determined by the reactivity ratio between volatile organic compounds and NO X . Overall, reactive abatement of volatile organic compounds should be a near-future priority for ozone-pollution control in China, followed by further NO X controls. Summer ozone in urban Beijing increased until 2014 and then decreased, according to 15 years of measurements in August from 2006 to 2020.
ISSN:1752-0894
1752-0908
DOI:10.1038/s41561-023-01334-9