Characterization of fine particles during the 2014 Asia-Pacific economic cooperation summit: Number concentration, size distribution and sources

Abstract To study the impacts of emission controls on aerosol physical and chemical properties, real-time measurements of size-resolved aerosol number concentration and chemical composition were conducted in urban Beijing during the 2014 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in a period that a series of measures, for example shutting down or halting production from factories and power plants, and restricting the number of vehicles on the roads were implemented in Beijing and surrounding regions. Significantly, reductions in particle mass concentration (55% for PM2.5 and 48% for PM10) were observed during the APEC summit. A clear decrease in secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA), such as sulphate, nitrate and ammonium, was found during APEC, with the reduction ranged from 65.7 to 72.2% for PM1, in which sulphate showed the largest decrease compared with periods before APEC. As a comparison, organics showed a much smaller decrease of 44.3% for PM1 during APEC. These changes were mainly caused by large reductions in accumulation mode particles, which decreased by 36% compared with 19% for Aitken mode particles. The results from the positive matrix factorization (PMF) of particle number concentration indicate that regionally transported aerosols showed significant decreases (70%), similar to those of SIA during APEC, whereas primary factors from traffic and local combustion sources presented much smaller decreases, with the reduction ranged from 4 to 40%. The elevated contributions of these sources indicated the presence of strong local source emissions. The changes in particle chemical composition, size distribution and sources during the evolution of pollution episodes with and without emission controls are further illustrated. Our results highlight the importance of regional atmospheric transport in the formation of severe pollution episodes in Beijing, indicating that reducing the precursors of secondary aerosol over regional scales represent the key steps to reduce the urban particulate pollution. However, stricter emission controls on local source emissions are needed to further mitigate air pollution in Beijing.