Air Quality in the Harbin-Changchun Metropolitan Area in Northeast China: Unique Episodes and New Trends
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State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China
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Key Laboratory of Environmental Optics and Technology, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: João Fernando Pereira Gomes
Toxics 2021, 9(12), 357; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9120357
Received: 11 November 2021
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Revised: 9 December 2021
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Accepted: 15 December 2021
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Published: 17 December 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sources, Atmospheric Transformation and Dispersion of Aerosol Particles)
Because of the unique geographical, climate, and anthropogenic emission characteristics, it is meaningful to explore the air pollution in the Harbin-Changchun (HC) metropolitan area. In this study, the Air Quality Index (AQI) and the corresponding major pollutant were investigated for the HC cities, based on the air quality data derived from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center. The number of days with the air quality level of “good” gradually increased during recent years, pointing to an improvement of the air quality in HC. It was also found that ozone, a typical secondary pollutant, exhibited stronger inter-city correlations compared to typical primary pollutants such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide. In addition, for nearly all the HC cities, the concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) decreased substantially in 2020 compared to 2015. However, this was not the case for ozone, with the most significant increase of ozone observed for HC’s central city, Harbin. This study highlights the importance of ozone reduction for further improving HC’s air quality, and the importance of agricultural fire control for eliminating heavily-polluted and even off-the-charts PM2.5 episodes.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Wang, Y.; Sun, Y.; Zhao, G.; Cheng, Y. Air Quality in the Harbin-Changchun Metropolitan Area in Northeast China: Unique Episodes and New Trends. Toxics 2021, 9, 357. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9120357
AMA Style
Wang Y, Sun Y, Zhao G, Cheng Y. Air Quality in the Harbin-Changchun Metropolitan Area in Northeast China: Unique Episodes and New Trends. Toxics. 2021; 9(12):357. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9120357
Chicago/Turabian StyleWang, Yulong, Youwen Sun, Gerong Zhao, and Yuan Cheng. 2021. "Air Quality in the Harbin-Changchun Metropolitan Area in Northeast China: Unique Episodes and New Trends" Toxics 9, no. 12: 357. https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics9120357
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