In situ measurements of trace gases and aerosol optical properties at a rural site in northern China during East Asian Study of Tropospheric Aerosols: An International Regional Experiment 2005

[1] In situ measurements of trace gases and aerosol optical properties were made in March 2005 at Xianghe (39.798°N, 116.958°E, 35 m), a rural site about 70 km southeast, and generally downwind of the Beijing metropolitan area. High pollutant levels were observed during the experiment, with CO (1.09 ± 1.02 ppmv, average ± standard deviation), SO2 (17.8 ± 15.7 ppbv), NOy (26.0 ± 24.0 ppbv), aerosol scattering coefficients (bsp, (468 ± 472) × 10−6 m−1), and aerosol absorption coefficients (bap, (65 ± 75) × 10−6 m−1) all much higher than observed at some rural sites in the United States. O3 (29.1 ± 16.5 ppbv) was relatively low during this study, suggesting inactive photochemical processes. Strong synoptic fluctuations in pollutant levels were detected every 4–5 days during the experiment, as cold fronts passing over the region drastically reduced the ground-level pollution. Very little precipitation was measured during the whole observational period, implying pollutant uplift and transport by rain-free cold fronts and dry convection. The single scattering albedo (SSA) observed (0.81 in the morning and 0.85 in the afternoon) indicates strongly absorbing aerosols near surface. The observed CO/SO2 ratio (35.8) is higher than inventory values, but closer to the updated CO inventory of Streets et al. (2006) than to Streets et al. (2003) or Wang et al. (2005). The observed CO/NOy ratio agrees better with inventories. Further analysis suggests that such comparisons may shed some light on the quality of emission inventories, but quantification of any error requires more extensive measurements over longer period and larger areas, as well as direct characterization of emission sources, especially mobile sources and small boilers. Using black carbon (BC)/CO ratio from the experiment, BC emissions from China are estimated at about 1300 Gg (109 g)/yr, but could be as high as 2600 Gg/yr.