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Measurements of nitrous acid (HONO) in urban area of Shanghai, China

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Abstract

Nitrous acid (HONO), as a precursor of the hydroxyl radical (OH), plays an important role in the photochemistry of the troposphere, especially in the polluted urban atmosphere. A field campaign was conducted to measure atmospheric HONO concentration and that of other pollutants (such as NO2 and particle mass concentration) in the autumn of 2009 at Shanghai urban areas. HONO mixing ratios were simultaneously measured by three different techniques: long path absorption photometer (LOPAP), differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) and chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS). The measurements showed that the mixing ratios of HONO were highly variable and depended strongly on meteorological parameters. The HONO levels ranged from 0.5 to 7 ppb with maximum values during early morning and minimum levels during late afternoon. The three instruments reproduced consistent diurnal pattern of HONO concentrations with higher concentration during the night compared to the daylight hours. Comparison of HONOLOPAP/HONOCIMS ratios during daytime and nighttime periods exhibited a non-systematic disagreement of 0.93 and 1.16, respectively. This would indicate different chemical compositions of sampled air for the LOPAP and the CIMS instruments during daytime and nighttime periods, which have possibly affected measurements. Mean HONO concentration reported by LOPAP was 33 % higher than by DOAS on the whole period with no significant difference between daytime and nighttime periods. This revealed a systematic deviation from both instruments. The present data provides complementary information of HONO ambient levels in the atmosphere of Shanghai urban areas.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique-Institute of Ecology and Environment (CNRS-INEE, France) through the Sino-French program, the Labex Voltaire (ANR-10-LABX-100-01), the Department of Environmental Science & Engineering of Fudan University (Shanghai) and the Chinese Academy of Science (Beijing). We thank the Pudong Meteorological Station for the particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10) data. BZ thanks the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 21277029, 21477021. JZ acknowledges the support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (41275142 and 41575122) and Jiangsu Provincial Specially-Appointed Professors Foundation.

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  1. Jun Zheng

    Present address: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut de Combustion, Aérothermique, Réactivité et Environnement, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique/OSUC, 45071, Orléans cedex 02, France

    François Bernard, Mathieu Cazaunau, Benoît Grosselin, Peng Liang, Véronique Daële & Abdelwahid Mellouki

  2. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention, Fudan Tyndall Centre, Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China

    Bin Zhou, Xingnan Ye & Jianmin Chen

  3. Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77840, USA

    Jun Zheng & Renyi Zhang

  4. Research Center for Eco-environmental of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Peng Liang, Yujie Zhang & Yujing Mu

  5. Environment Research Institute/School of Environmental Science & Engineering, Shandong University, Shandong, 250100, China

    Abdelwahid Mellouki

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  1. François Bernard
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Correspondence to Abdelwahid Mellouki.

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Bernard, F., Cazaunau, M., Grosselin, B. et al. Measurements of nitrous acid (HONO) in urban area of Shanghai, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 5818–5829 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-5797-4

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