Articles | Volume 18, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12953-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12953-2018
Research article
 | 
10 Sep 2018
Research article |  | 10 Sep 2018

Intermittent turbulence contributes to vertical dispersion of PM2.5 in the North China Plain: cases from Tianjin

Wei Wei, Hongsheng Zhang, Bingui Wu, Yongxiang Huang, Xuhui Cai, Yu Song, and Jianduo Li

Abstract. Heavy particulate pollution events have frequently occurred in the North China Plain over the past decades. Due to high emissions and poor dispersion conditions, issues are becoming increasingly serious during cold seasons. Although early studies have explored some potential reasons for air pollution, there are few works focusing on the effects of intermittent turbulence. This paper draws upon two typical PM2.5 (particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 mm) pollution cases from the winter of 2016–2017. After several days of gradual accumulation, the concentration of PM2.5 near the surface reached the maximum as a combined result of strong inversion layer, stagnant wind, and high ambient humidity and then sharply decreased to a very low level within a few hours. In order to identify the strength of turbulent intermittency, an effective index, called the intermittency factor (IF), was proposed by this work. The results show that the turbulence is very weak during the cumulative stage due to the suppression by strongly stratified layers, while for the stage of dispersion, the turbulence is highly intermittent and not locally generated. The vertical structure of turbulence and wind profiles confirms the generation and downward transport of intermittent turbulence associated with low-level jets. The intermittent turbulent fluxes contribute positively to the vertical transport of particulate matter and improve the air quality near the surface. This work has demonstrated a possible mechanism of how intermittent turbulence affects the dispersion of particulate matter.

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Short summary
Heavy particulate pollution events have frequently occurred in the North China Plain. Using the intermittency factor, we found that the turbulence during the transport stage is intermittent and not locally generated. Turbulence results from the wind shear of low-level jets and then transports downward, causing intermittent turbulence at lower levels. The intermittent turbulence contributes positively to the vertical dispersion of particulate matter and improves the air quality near the surface.
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