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Trends and Spatiotemporal Patterns of Tropospheric NO2 over China During 2005–2014

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Abstract

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the major atmospheric pollutants, and the concentration of NO2 is regarded as one of the indicators of air quality. In the past decades, China has experienced rapid economic growth and severe NO2 pollution to match. We evaluate the trends and spatiotemporal patterns of tropospheric NO2 over mainland China from 2005 to 2014 using vertical column density (VCD) datasets retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). Results show that from 2005 to 2014, NO2 pollution regions have enlarged at the national scale, and high NO2 VCDs are mainly concentrated over highly populated regions in eastern China. The year 2011 is the turning point. Tropospheric NO2 VCDs first significantly increase by 0.19 × 1015 molec cm−2 year−1 (R 2 = 0.94, P = 0.002) from 2005 to 2011, and then decrease by 0.21 × 1015 molec cm−2 year−1 (R 2 = 0.97, P = 0.016) from 2011 to 2014. Since 2011, tropospheric NO2 VCDs over central-east China decrease remarkably. Tropospheric NO2 VCDs is higher in November (3.630 × 1015 molec/cm2), December (4.758 × 1015 molec/cm2), and January (4.863 × 1015 molec/cm2), while lower in July (1.684 × 1015 molec/cm2), August (1.627 × 1015 molec/cm2), and September (1.703 × 1015 molec/cm2), indicating that winter and spring are the most polluted seasons. Due to the huge gap in population density and industry development between western and eastern China, the spatial pattern of tropospheric NO2 VCDs shows large west-east difference.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (no. 2014BAC23B05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Shumei Yu

  2. College of Resource and Environmental Sciences, and Hebei Key Laboratory of Environment Chang and Ecological Construction, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, 050024, China

    Jinguo Yuan

  3. Beijing Quanhua Standards Research Center for Environmental Technology, Beijing, 100012, China

    Xingyin Liang

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  1. Shumei Yu
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  2. Jinguo Yuan
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Correspondence to Shumei Yu.

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Yu, S., Yuan, J. & Liang, X. Trends and Spatiotemporal Patterns of Tropospheric NO2 over China During 2005–2014. Water Air Soil Pollut 228, 447 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3641-9

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