Surface and Column-Integrated Aerosol Properties of Heavy Haze Events in January 2013 over the North China Plain

Li Sun; Xiangao  Xiangao Xia; Pucai Wang; Renjian Zhang; Huizheng Che; Zhaoze Deng; Ye Fei; Liang Ran; Xiaoyan Meng

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2014.10.0252

Surface and Column-Integrated Aerosol Properties of Heavy Haze Events in January 2013 over the North China Plain

Li Sun¹^,3, Xiangao Xiangao Xia ¹^,2, Pucai Wang¹, Renjian Zhang⁴, Huizheng Che⁵, Zhaoze Deng¹, Ye Fei¹^,3, Liang Ran¹, Xiaoyan Meng⁶

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¹Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation (LAGEO), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10029, China
²Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China
³University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
⁴Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for East Asia (RCE-TEA), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 10029, China
⁵Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC), Institute of Atmospheric Composition, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (CAMS), CMA, Beijing, 100081, China
⁶China National Environmental Monitoring Center, Beijing 100012, China

Received: October 28, 2014
Revised: January 13, 2015
Accepted: March 23, 2015
Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2014.10.0252

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Cite this article:
Sun, L., Xiangao Xia, X., Wang, P., Zhang, R., Che, H., Deng, Z., Fei, Y., Ran, L. and Meng, X. (2015). Surface and Column-Integrated Aerosol Properties of Heavy Haze Events in January 2013 over the North China Plain. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 15: 1514-1524. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2014.10.0252

ABSTRACT

Heavy haze events were recorded over the North China Plain (NCP) during January 2013. The meteorological condition, in-situ measurement, and ground remote sensing of aerosol size distributions and aerosol optical properties were analyzed to study the meteorological effects on surface and column-integrated aerosol loading. Besides special terrain, analysis of meteorological parameters showed that such a long-standing pollution event was attributable to stagnant weather with high humidity, frequent inversion and low wind speed. The monthly average mass concentration of particulate matter smaller than 1.0 µm (PM₁), 2.5 µm (PM_2.5), and 10 µm (PM₁₀) was 169, 190, and 233 µg/m³, respectively. High mass fraction of PM₁ (73%) and PM_2.5 (82%) in PM₁₀ indicated the domination of fine mode particles. Increase of the fraction of PM_1–2.5 during haze events was attributed to the increase of secondary aerosol under high humidity. Two polluted aerosol types (A1, A3) and one background aerosol (A2) were classified based on aerosol optical depth at 440 nm (AOD₄₄₀) and column-integrated size distributions. The AOD₄₄₀ of cloud/fog processed aerosol (1.43) was about two and seven times larger than that of A1 and A2, respectively. The single scattering albedo at 675 nm (SSA₆₇₅) of A3 was ~0.93, which was larger than that of A1 (0.85) and A2 (0.80) due to hygroscopic growth under humid environment.