“Military Parade Blue Skies” in Beijing: Decisive Influence of Meteorological Factors on Transport Channel and Atmospheric Pollutant Concentration Level

Abstract

The severity of high atmospheric pollution has been a major social problem in northern China. To improve the air quality in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region and guarantee a suitable environment during the military parade and other celebrating activities for the 70th anniversary of the victory for anti-Fascist Warcraft in the year 2015, a series of strict air quality control policies were carried out. To analyze the reduction extents of PM2.5 and organic matter components during the control period and to examine the meteorological conditions in this region and their decisive influence on the air quality, PM2.5 samples were collected and the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART was performed to calculate potential source locations within the BTH region. PM2.5, organic carbon (OC), elementary carbon (EC), and three species types were specifically analyzed. Although the results showed that PM2.5, OC, and EC reduced by 64.55%, 48.74%, and 60.75% during the control period, the air mass transport patterns showed great difference at certain periods, which altered the dominant transport direction of air mass and the potential source region of pollutants and organic matters. This alteration completely changed major atmospheric pollutants sources contribution and caused huge concentration changes. Parallel cases also showed that meteorological conditions could avoid massive atmospheric transported from a major emission source region to a receptor site. The meteorological conditions changed the main contribution source region in control and non-control periods and proved the air quality control measures were less necessary in some southern Hebei cities during special events periods.