Severe haze episodes and seriously polluted fog water in Ji'nan, China

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 493; pp. 133 - 137
• Main Authors: Wang, Xinfeng, Chen, Jianmin, Sun, Jianfeng, Li, Weijun, Yang, Lingxiao, Wen, Liang, Wang, Wenxing, Wang, Xinming, Collett, Jeffrey L., Shi, Yang, Zhang, Qingzhu, Hu, Jingtian, Yao, Lan, Zhu, Yanhong, Sui, Xiao, Sun, Xiaomin, Mellouki, Abdelwahid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 15.09.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollution - statistics & numerical data; Applied sciences; Atmosphere - chemistry; Atmospheric pollution; Carbonaceous materials; China; Cities; Continental interfaces, environment; Eastern China; Environmental Monitoring; Environmental Sciences; Exact sciences and technology; Fog; Nitrogen Oxides - analysis; Particulate Matter; PM2.5; Pollutants physicochemistry study: properties, effects, reactions, transport and distribution; Pollution; Regional haze; Sciences of the Universe; Water treatment and pollution; Water-soluble ions; Weather; Asia; China; China, People's Rep; Eastern China; Carbonaceous materials; Water-soluble ions; PM2.5; Regional haze; Fog; Ammonium; Pollutant behavior; Haze; Environmental factor; Inorganic ion; Nitrates; Urban area; Sulfates; Abiotic factor; Water soluble compound; Spatial distribution; Fine particle; Aerosols; Air pollution; Water pollution; PM; PM(2.5)
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.05.135

Haze episodes often hit urban cities in China recently. Here, we present several continuous haze episodes with extremely high PM2.5 levels that occurred over several weeks in early 2013 and extended across most parts of the northern and eastern China—far exceeding the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. Particularly, the haze episode covered ~1millionkm2 on January 14, 2013 and the daily averaged PM2.5 concentration exceeded 360μgm−3 in Ji'nan. The observed maximum hourly PM2.5 concentration in urban Ji'nan reached 701μgm−3 at 7:00am (local time) in January 30. During these haze episodes, several fog events happened and the concurrent fog water was found to be seriously polluted. For the fog water collected in Ji'nan from 10:00pm in January 14 to 11:00am in January 15, sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium were the major ions with concentrations of 1.54×106, 8.98×105, and 1.75×106 μeqL−1, respectively, leading to a low in-situ pH of 3.30. The sulfate content in the fog sample was more than 544 times as high as those observed in other areas. With examination of the simultaneously observed data on PM2.5 and its chemical composition, the fog played a role in scavenging and removing fine particles from the atmosphere during haze episodes and thus was seriously contaminated. However, the effect was not sufficient to obviously cleanse air pollution and block haze episodes. •Spatial distributions of PM2.5 over China during server haze episodes were given.•Fog water was seriously polluted due to longtime and large-scale haze pollution.•Fog events reduced ambient air pollutants but difficult to cleanse the air.