Estimation of daily PM2.5 concentration and its relationship with meteorological conditions in Beijing.

When investigating the impact of air pollution on health, particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5) is considered more harmful than particulates of other sizes. Therefore, studies of PM2.5 have attracted more attention. Beijing, the capital of China, is notorious for its serious air pollution problem, an issue which has been of great concern to the residents, government, and related institutes for decades. However, in China, significantly less time has been devoted to observing PM2.5 than for PM10. Especially before 2013, the density of the PM2.5 ground observation network was relatively low, and the distribution of observation stations was uneven. One solution is to estimate PM2.5 concentrations from the existing data on PM10. In the present study, by analyzing the relationship between the concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10, and the meteorological conditions for each season in Beijing from 2008 to 2014, a U-shaped relationship was found between the daily maximum wind speed and the daily PM concentration, including both PM2.5 and PM10. That is, the relationship between wind speed and PM concentration is not a simple positive or negative correlation in these wind directions; their relationship has a complex effect, with higher PM at low and high wind than for moderate winds. Additionally, in contrast to previous studies, we found that the PM2.5/PM10 ratio is proportional to the mean relative humidity (MRH). According to this relationship, for each season we established a multiple nonlinear regression (MNLR) model to estimate the PM2.5 concentrations of the missing periods.

[1]  S. Easa,et al.  Pollutant dispersion characteristics in Dhaka city, Bangladesh , 2012, Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.

[2]  George Christakos,et al.  Estimation of Citywide Air Pollution in Beijing , 2013, PloS one.

[3]  Jun Wang,et al.  Intercomparison between satellite‐derived aerosol optical thickness and PM2.5 mass: Implications for air quality studies , 2003 .

[4]  Xuemei Wang,et al.  Impact of a dust storm on characteristics of particle matter (PM) in Guangzhou, China , 2013, Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.

[5]  Tao Wang,et al.  Tropospheric ozone climatology over Beijing: analysis of aircraft data from the MOZAIC program , 2007 .

[6]  Jiamo Fu,et al.  Chemical Composition and Sources of PM10 and PM2.5 Aerosols in Guangzhou, China , 2006, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[7]  Sang-Woo Kim,et al.  Air quality modeling in East Asia: present issues and future directions , 2014, Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.

[8]  Yuhui Yang,et al.  Decreasing trend of sunshine hours and related driving forces in North China , 2009 .

[9]  Jinlong Li,et al.  Acidic and basic properties and buffer capacity of airborne particulate matter in an urban area of Beijing , 2011, Environmental monitoring and assessment.

[10]  Guoping Wu,et al.  Children's respiratory morbidity prevalence in relation to air pollution in four Chinese cities. , 2002, Environmental health perspectives.

[11]  Zhengqiang Li,et al.  Column aerosol optical properties and aerosol radiative forcing during a serious haze-fog month over North China Plain in 2013 based on ground-based sunphotometer measurements , 2013 .

[12]  J. Xin,et al.  Mechanism for the formation of the January 2013 heavy haze pollution episode over central and eastern China , 2014 .

[13]  Han-qing Kang,et al.  Analysis of a long-lasting haze episode in Nanjing, China , 2013 .

[14]  H. Kim,et al.  On large-scale transport of dust storms and anthropogenic dust-falls over east Asia observed in central Korea in 2009 , 2014, Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.

[15]  Renjian Zhang,et al.  Chemical characterization and source apportionment of PM 2 . 5 in Beijing : seasonal perspective , 2013 .

[16]  Josep Calbó,et al.  The signal of aerosol‐induced changes in sunshine duration records: A review of the evidence , 2014 .

[17]  Seong-Joong Kim,et al.  Evolution of surface O3 and PM2.5 concentrations and their relationships with meteorological conditions over the last decade in Beijing , 2015 .

[18]  Janae Csavina,et al.  Effect of wind speed and relative humidity on atmospheric dust concentrations in semi-arid climates. , 2014, The Science of the total environment.

[19]  Xiangde Xu,et al.  Beijing Air Pollution Project to Benefit 2008 Olympic Games. , 2005 .

[20]  Michael Lipsett,et al.  Long-Term Exposure to Constituents of Fine Particulate Air Pollution and Mortality: Results from the California Teachers Study , 2009, Environmental health perspectives.

[21]  M. Zunckel,et al.  A novel air pollution index based on the relative risk of daily mortality associated with short-term exposure to common air pollutants , 2007 .

[22]  Xiangao Xia,et al.  Aerosol optical properties under the condition of heavy haze over an urban site of Beijing, China , 2014, Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

[23]  Qifan Liu,et al.  Characterization of submicron aerosols during a month of serious pollution in Beijing, 2013 , 2014 .