Is atmospheric oxidation capacity better in indicating tropospheric O₃ formation?

Highlights

● This study summarizes and evaluates different approaches that indicate O₃ formation.

● Isopleth and sensitivity methods are useful but have many prerequisites.

● AOC is a better indicator of photochemical reactions leading to O₃ formation.

Abstract

Tropospheric ozone (O₃) concentration is increasing in China along with dramatic changes in precursor emissions and meteorological conditions, adversely affecting human health and ecosystems. O₃ is formed from the complex nonlinear photochemical reactions from nitrogen oxides (NO_x = NO + NO₂) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Although the mechanism of O₃ formation is rather clear, describing and analyzing its changes and formation potential at fine spatial and temporal resolution is still a challenge today. In this study, we briefly summarized and evaluated different approaches that indicate O₃ formation regimes. We identify that atmospheric oxidation capacity (AOC) is a better indicator of photochemical reactions leading to the formation of O₃ and other secondary pollutants. Results show that AOC has a prominent positive relationship to O₃ in the major city clusters in China, with a goodness of fit (R²) up to 0.6. This outcome provides a novel perspective in characterizing O₃ formation and has significant implications for formulating control strategies of secondary pollutants.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

O₃ / AOC / O₃ formation regime

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the co-funded DFG-NSFC Sino-German Air Changes Project (No. 448720203), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42077194/42061134008/42022023/92044302), and the Shanghai International Science and Technology Partnership Project (China) (No. 21230780200).

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