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. 2022 Jan 20;39(3):403–414. doi: 10.1007/s00376-021-1257-x

A New Index Developed for Fast Diagnosis of Meteorological Roles in Ground-Level Ozone Variations

Weihua Chen 1, Weiwen Wang 1, Shiguo Jia 2, Jingying Mao 1, Fenghua Yan 1, Lianming Zheng 1, Yongkang Wu 1, Xingteng Zhang 1, Yutong Dong 1, Lingbin Kong 1, Buqing Zhong 3, Ming Chang 1, Min Shao 1, Xuemei Wang 1,✉
PMCID: PMC8773386  PMID: 35079193

Abstract

China experienced worsening ground-level ozone (O3) pollution from 2013 to 2019. In this study, meteorological parameters, including surface temperature (T2), solar radiation (SW), and wind speed (WS), were classified into two aspects, (1) Photochemical Reaction Condition (PRC = T2 × SW) and (2) Physical Dispersion Capacity (PDC = WS). In this way, a Meteorology Synthetic Index (MSI = PRC/PDC) was developed for the quantification of meteorology-induced ground-level O3 pollution. The positive linear relationship between the 90th percentile of MDA8 (maximum daily 8-h average) O3 concentration and MSI determined that the contribution of meteorological changes to ground-level O−3 varied on a latitudinal gradient, decreasing from ∼40% in southern China to 10%–20% in northern China. Favorable photochemical reaction conditions were more important for ground-level O3 pollution. This study proposes a universally applicable index for fast diagnosis of meteorological roles in ground-level O3 variability, which enables the assessment of the observed effects of precursor emissions reductions that can be used for designing future control policies.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s00376-021-1257-x.

Key words: Ground-level ozone, Meteorology synthetic index, Photochemical reaction condition, Physical dispersion capacity

Electronic Supplementary Material to

376_2021_1257_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (1.1MB, pdf)

A New Index Developed for Fast Diagnosis of Meteorological Roles in Ground-Level Ozone Variations

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Plan (Grant No. 2017YFC0210105), the second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (Grant No. 2019QZKK0604), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41905086, 41905107, 42077205, and 41425020), the Special Fund Project for Science and Technology Innovation Strategy of Guangdong Province (Grant No. 2019B121205004), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2020M683174), the AirQuip (High-resolution Air Quality Information for Policy) Project funded by the Research Council of Norway, the Collaborative Innovation Center of Climate Change, Jiangsu Province, China, and the high-performance computing platform of Jinan University.

Footnotes

Article Highlights

• A Meteorology Synthetic Index (MSI) was developed for fast diagnosis of meteorological roles in ground-level O3 variation.

• Meteorological conditions contributed to a 10%–40% increase in ground-level O3 in China for the period 2013–2019.

• The contribution of meteorological parameters to ground-level O3 decreased from ∼40% in southern China to 10%–20% in northern China.

Electronic supplementary material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s00376-021-1257-y.

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376_2021_1257_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (1.1MB, pdf)

A New Index Developed for Fast Diagnosis of Meteorological Roles in Ground-Level Ozone Variations

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