Event Details

Baozhu Ge is visiting from the State Key Lab for Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry at IAP in Beijing, He has been involved in both measurements and modelling for the recent major UK-China APHH project on air quality in Beijing jointly funded by NERC/Newton Fund and NSFC.

Atmospheric ammonia (NH3) plays a vital role in the atmosphere. To fully understand its effects on the formation of air pollution in Beijing, ambient NH3 and related species were measured at high resolution during the wintertime Air Pollution and Human Health-Beijing (APHH-Beijing) campaign in 2016. Our results show that total NHx (gaseous NH3 and particle NH4) was mostly in excess of the SO4-NO3-NH4 water equilibrium system during the campaign. During polluted periods, secondary inorganic aerosol components contributed most to PM2.5 and were highly correlated with aerosol water content, indicating the importance of heterogeneous reactions in haze formation. Our analysis suggests that NH4NO3 is the most important factor driving the formation of aerosol water content, with NO3 controlling the prior pollution stage and NH4 the most polluted stage.