U.S. Air Quality

Some context for Beijing's Air Quality during the Olympics

Over the past week we have been following the air quality near Beijing and have seen it go from good to bad to worse to good to great to rain..... In other words, like everywhere else in the world, Beijing's air quality depends strongly on which way the wind blows. When the wind is from the Northwest, and where there are not dust storms arising off the plateau, Beijing can have very acceptable air quality ("blue sky days"). But when the air comes from the south, where much of the pollution is generated, the air quality can be awful.

Published today is a series of articles in Atmospheric Environment on the PRIDE campaign which was held in China in 2004. This study was further to the south in the industrialized areas of China (Guangzhou city (23.13°N, 113.26°E) and a non-urban site at Xinken (22.61°N, 113.59°E) in the Pearl River delta. The initial paper by Zhang et al. shows the context of PM_2.5 in this area. Concentration readings are regularly above 100 ug m^-3. Interesting reading.

Ref: Y.H. Zhang, M. Hu, L.J. Zhong, A. Wiedensohler, S.C. Liu, M.O. Andreae, W. Wang and S.J. Fang, PRIDE-PRD 2004 Campaign : Program of Regional Integrated Experiments on Air Quality over Pearl River Delta of China, Atmospheric Environment. Volume 42, Issue 25, August 2008, Pages 6157-6173. Posted by Ray Hoff at August 21, 2008 12:39 PM