GAW Report No. 205 - IGAC Project

CHAPTER 3 - ASIAData available on air pollutantsComprehensive and accurate information on air quality in the PRD is available from the PRDRegional Air Quality Monitoring Network, which has 16 automated air quality monitoring stationsjointly established by the Guangdong Provincial Environmental Monitoring Centre and theEnvironmental Protection Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Thirteenstations are operated in Guangdong while three stations are located in Hong Kong. Theconcentrations of air pollutants like SO 2 , NO X , NO 2 , O 3 , RSP (Respirable Suspended Particulate,PM 10 ), and CO are regularly and continuously monitored. On November 30, 2005, the PRDRegional Air Quality Monitoring Network allowed for daily publication of the Regional Air QualityIndex on the Internet (http://www-app.gdepb.gov.cn/raqi3/RAQI_en.htm)The Programme of Regional Integrated Experiments of Air Quality over Pearl River Delta(PRIDE-PRD) provides a comprehensive understanding of the air pollutants. More speciesincluding NO, NO 2 , NO Y , VOCs, SO 2 , CO, CO 2 , O 3 , HONO, and PM 2.5 as well as the sizedistribution, chemical composition, and optical property of particles were measured. These data canhelp to appraise the air quality situation and pollution problems in the PRD region. The results arepublished in a special issue of Atmospheric Environment (42(25), 2008) for PRIDE-PRD 2004 aswell as on Atmos. Chem. Phys. for PRIDE-PRD 2006.The status and trend of the pollutionPrevious studies showed that PRD is suffering from a serious air quality degradationproblem, which is characterized by the coexistence of the high levels of O 3 , PM 2.5 , NO X , and SO 2(Zhang et al., 2008a). High aerosol concentration events are observed in the MODIS aerosol opticaldepth data (Figure 38) [Wu et al., 2005]. The high concentration of aerosol particles is a majorreason for the low visibility and haze day occurrence remain very high, e.g. around 150 days year –1between 1980 and 2006 (Figure 39) [Wu et al., 2005; Deng et al., 2008].Figure 38 - MODIS measurements of aerosol optical depth form on 2 November (upper panel) and 3rd November(lower panel) 2003 at 8am local time. The white circle indicates the location of Guangzhou [Wu et al., 2005]109