GAW Report No. 205 - IGAC Project

7.9 PRIDE-PRDCHAPTER 7 – OVERVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH ACTIVITIESPearl River Delta (PRD) is one of the three city-clusters in China that has experiencedextremely fast urbanization and industrialization. The breathtaking speed of economic growth forover three decades in PRD, however, has been accompanied by an increase in air pollution,namely elevated concentrations of ozone O 3 and fine particulates PM 2.5 . The concurrent highconcentrations of O 3 and PM 2.5 together with primary pollutants has led to rather unique pollutioncharacteristics due to interactions between primary emissions and photochemical processes,between gaseous compounds and aerosol phase species, and between local and regional scaleprocesses.PRIDE-PRD (The Programme of Regional Integrated Experiments on Air Quality over PearlRiver Delta of China), sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST)during 2003-2008, was developed to investigate in depth the air pollution problem and to improvethe understanding of the chemical and radiative processes in PRD. The main objectives were to:• Characterize the temporal and spatial distribution of the concentrations of aerosol, oxidants,and their precursors by ground based (routine monitoring network and super-sites), airborneand satellite measurements• Understand chemical composition, size distribution, hygroscopic properties, and opticalproperties of aerosols• Quantify the contribution of precursors to the formation of oxidants and secondary aerosolsby measurements and modelling• Study the interactions between aerosols and gases through measurements of precursors ofaerosols and oxidants as well as by modelling• Determine source-receptor relationship across cities within the PRD as well regionalcontribution to PRD air pollution• Define the regional mitigation strategies and technical options to keep the air pollution loadin PRD within sustainable limits in terms of ecological and human health effectsPRIDE-PRD consisted of two campaigns: PRIDE-PRD2004 during October 1 andNovember 4, 2004 and PRIDE-PRD2006 during July 4 and July 31, 2006. An international scienceteam from China (mainland, Taipei, and Hong Kong), Germany, Japan, and Korea was involved inboth campaigns. Yuanhang Zhang from Peking University and Liuju Zhong from GuangdongProvincial Environmental Monitoring Center coordinated PRIDE-PRD. The campaigns ofPRIDE-PRD were truly a team effort, bringing together more than 100 scientists, staff and studentsfrom 20 institutes, to operate two well-equipped super-sites, aircraft measurements, meteorologicalsoundings, as well as 16 routine sites of the PRD regional air quality monitoring network (Figure14).Figure 14 - Overview of PRIDE-PRDcampaign in 2004 and 2006270