Ambient photolysis frequency of NO₂ determined using chemical actinometer and spectroradiometer at an urban site in Beijing

Abstract

• Chemical actinometer (CA) was built for NO₂ photolysis frequency, j(NO₂), analysis.

• CA data (10% accuracy) were compared with spectroradiometer (SR) data.

• Long-term j(NO₂) measurement was validated by comparison of CA and SR.

• Dis-benefit of aerosol on j(NO₂) due toparticulate matter (PM_2.5) control on O₃.

The photolysis frequency of NO₂, j(NO₂), is an important analytical parameter in the study of tropospheric chemistry. A chemical actinometer (CA) was built to measure the ambient j(NO₂) based on a high precision NO_x instrument with 1 min time resolution. Parallel measurements of the ambient j(NO₂) by using the CA and a commercial spectroradiometer (SR) were conducted at a typical urban site (Peking University Urban Environmental Monitoring Station) in Beijing. In general, good agreement was achieved between the CA and SR data with a high linear correlation coefficient (R² = 0.977) and a regression slope of 1.12. The regression offset was negligible compared to the measured signal level. The j(NO₂) data were calculated using the tropospheric ultraviolet visible radiation (TUV) model, which was constrained to observe aerosol optical properties. The calculated j(NO₂) was intermediate between the results obtained with CA and SR, demonstrating the consistency of all the parameters observed at this site. The good agreement between the CA and SR data, and the consistency with the TUV model results, demonstrate the good performance of the installed SR instrument. Since a drift of the SR sensitivity is expected by the manufacturer, we propose a regular check of the data acquired via SR against those obtained by CA for long-term delivery of a high quality series of j(NO₂) data. Establishing such a time series will be invaluable for analyzing the long-term atmospheric oxidation capacity trends as well as O₃ pollution for urban Beijing.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Photolysis frequency of nitrogen dioxide / Chemical actinometer / Spectroradiometer / Tropospheric ultraviolet visible radiation model

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Acknowledgements

We have profited from discussions with Dr. Franz Rohrer. We acknowledge financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91544225 and 41375124), the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDB05010500), and the special fund of the State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control (13Z02ESPCP).

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2016 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg