Abstract
Vertical ozone and meteorological parameters were measured by tethered balloon in the boundary layer in the summer of 2009 in Beijing, China. A total of 77 tethersonde soundings were taken during the 27-day campaign. The surface ozone concentrations measured by ozonesondes and TEI 49C showed good agreement, albeit with temporal difference between the two instruments. Two case studies of nocturnal secondary ozone maxima are discussed in detail. The development of the low-level jet played a critical role leading to the observed ozone peak concentrations in nocturnal boundary layer (NBL). The maximum of surface ozone was 161.7 ppbv during the campaign, which could be attributed to abundant precursors storage near surface layer at nighttime. Vertical distribution of ozone was also measured utilizing conventional continuous analyzers on 325-m meteorological observation tower. The results showed the NBL height was between 47 and 280 m, which were consistent with the balloon data. Southerly air flow could bring ozone-rich air to Beijing, and the ozone concentrations exceeded the China’s hourly ozone standard (approximately 100 ppb) above 600 m for more than 12 h.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bridget, M. D., Bernhard, R., Craig, B. C., & Sara, C. T. (2010). Nocturnal boundary layer characteristics and land breeze development in Houston, Texas during TexAQS II. Atmospheric Environment, 44, 4014–4023.
Corsmeier, U., Kalthoff, N., Kolle, O., Kotzian, M., & Fiedler, F. (1997). Ozone concentration jump in the stable nocturnal boundary layer during a LLJ-event. Atmospheric Environment, 31, 1977–1989.
Fishman, J., Wozniak, A. E., & Creilson, J. K. (2003). Global distribution of tropospheric ozone from satellite measurements using the empirically corrected tropospheric ozone residual technique: identification of the regional aspects of air pollution. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 3, 893–907.
Hains, J. C., Taubman, B. F., Thompson, A. M., Stehr, J. W., Marufu, L. T., Doddridge, B. G., & Dickerson, R. R. (2008). Origins of chemical pollution derived from Mid-Atlantic aircraft profiles using a clustering technique. Atmospheric Environment, 42, 1727–1741.
Kleinman, L. I., Lee, Y. N., Springston, S. R., et al. (1994). Ozone formation at a rural site in the southeastern United States. Journal of Geophysical Research, 99, 3469–3482.
Komhyr, W. D., Barnes, R. A., Brothers, G. B., Lathrop, J. A., & Opperman, D. P. (1995). Electrochemical concentration cell ozonesonde performance evaluation during STOIC 1989. Journal of Geophysical Research, 100, 9231–9244.
Li, J., & Shu, W. J. (2008). Observation and analysis of nocturnal low-level jet characteristics over Beijing in summer (in Chinese). Chinese Journal of Geophysics, 51, 360–368.
Lin, C., Lai, C. H., Wu, Y. L., et al. (2007). Vertical ozone distributions observed using tethered ozonesondes in a coastal industrial city, Kaohsiung, in southern Taiwan. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 127, 253–270.
Lin, W. L., Xu, X. B., Zhang, X. C., & Tang, J. (2008). Contributions of pollutants from North China Plain to surface ozone at the Shangdianzi GAW Station. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 8, 5889–5898.
Meng, Z. Y., Xu, X. B., Yan, P., Ding, G. A., et al. (2009). Characteristics of trace gaseous pollutants at a regional background station in Northern China. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 9, 927–936.
Reitebuch, O., Strassburger, A., Emeis, S., & Kuttler, W. (2000). Nocturnal secondary ozone concentration maxima analysed by sodar observations and surface measurements. Atmospheric Environment, 34, 4315–4329.
Ryan, W. F., Davidson, P., Stokols, P. (2005). Evaluation of the National Air Quality Forecast System (NAQFS) development large domain model: Summary of the Air Quality Forecasters Focus Group Workshop. Paper presented at 7th Conference on the Atmospheric Chemistry, Am. Meteorol. Soc., San Diego, Calif., 2005.
Stull, R. B. (1988). An introduction to boundary layer meteorology. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Sun, Y., Wang, Y. S., & Zhang, C. C. (2010). Vertical observations and analysis of PM2.5, O3, and NO x at Beijing and Tianjin from towers during summer and autumn 2006. Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, 27(1), 123–136.
Thompson, A. M. (2006). Ozone from soundings: A vital element of regional and global measurement strategies. In: G. Visconti, P. DiCarlo, W. H. Brune, A. Wahner, M. R. Schoerberl (Eds.), Observing systems for atmospheric composition: Satellite, aircraft sensor web and ground-based observational methods and strategies. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 0387307192.
Zhang, J., & Rao, S. T. (1999). The role of vertical mixing in the temporal evolution of ground-level ozone concentrations. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 38, 1674–1691.
Zheng, X. D., Ding, G. A., Yu, H. Q., Liu, Y., & Xu, X. D. (2005). Vertical distribution of ozone in the planetary boundary layer at the Ming Tombs, Beijing. Science in China Series D-Earth Sciences, 48, 55–63.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant No. 41105092 and 40805054, Beijing Natural Science Foundation (8121002), and the Special Fund for Meteorological Research in the Public Interest (No. GYHY200806027).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ma, Z., Xu, H., Meng, W. et al. Vertical ozone characteristics in urban boundary layer in Beijing. Environ Monit Assess 185, 5449–5460 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2958-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2958-5