Possible influence of atmospheric circulations on winter haze pollution in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, northern China

Zhang, Z.; Zhang, X.; Gong, D.; Kim, S.-J.; Mao, R.; Zhao, X.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-561-2016

Articles | Volume 16, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-561-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

East Asia emissions assessment (EA2)

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-561-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 2

Research article

|

19 Jan 2016

Research article |

| 19 Jan 2016

Possible influence of atmospheric circulations on winter haze pollution in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, northern China

Z. Zhang, X. Zhang, D. Gong, S.-J. Kim, R. Mao, and X. Zhao

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Final revised paper (published on 19 Jan 2016)
Preprint (discussion started on 21 Aug 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C6775: 'Atmospheric chemistry', Anonymous Referee #1, 10 Sep 2015
- AC C7076: 'Response to Reviewer#1', Ziyin Zhang, 22 Sep 2015
- AC C7086: 'Responses to Reviewer #1', Ziyin Zhang, 22 Sep 2015
RC C6885: 'Interactive comment on “Possible influence of atmospheric circulations on winter hazy pollution in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, northern China” by Z. Zhang et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 Sep 2015
AC C7096: 'Responses to Reviewer #2', Ziyin Zhang, 22 Sep 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Ziyin Zhang on behalf of the Authors (18 Oct 2015)

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (29 Oct 2015) by Gregory Carmichael

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (06 Nov 2015)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

This manuscript examines the relationships between atmospheric circulations and haze pollution in the North China, using observations from weather stations and reanalysis data. Six atmospheric circulation indices were defined and used to build a model to predict visibility and number of hazy days. Furthermore, a comprehensive index extracted from those six indices using PCA was used to explain the possible mechanism of the influences. This paper provides a new direction to predict haze pollution in the future. After revision, my only concern now is the explanation about the role of emission changes in the model. I recommend publication after it has been addressed.

Major Comments:
In the last paragraph of section 3.3, the authors think the bad performance of the model in the last several years is due to the 2008 Olympic Games. However, the Olympic Games were in summer. There is no evidence showing that emissions in winter were affected. From the emission trends in responses to reviewers, SO2, dust and soot emissions do not have significant change from 2007 to 2009 in Beijing. In addition, the emissions have substantial decrease from 1995 to 2003, but the model predictions look fine. Therefore, it’s questionable to attribute the phenomena to strict emissions control in 2008.
The model explained fluctuations of hazy days from 1981 to 2015 without considering emission changes. During the last three decades, large changes in emissions occurred in China. This issue should be addressed before being published in ACP.

Minor corrections:
1. It is kind of weird to use the phrase “hazy pollution”, recommend using “haze pollution”
2. Line 71, rewrite the sentence “dominant meteorological factors during heavy pollution in the BTH region”
3. Line 456, should be “significant” not “significantly”
4. In figure 9, it is hard to read whether the value is positive or negative. The author can use different colors to denote, like in figure 3.

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ED: Reconsider after minor revisions (Editor review) (16 Nov 2015) by Gregory Carmichael

AR by Ziyin Zhang on behalf of the Authors (21 Nov 2015) Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (16 Dec 2015) by Gregory Carmichael

AR by Ziyin Zhang on behalf of the Authors (19 Dec 2015) Manuscript

Short summary

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) region has suffered from severe haze pollution in recent years. It is important to understand the possible reasons and whether it can be predicted on the seasonal timescale. This studies suggested that the winter haze pollution in BTH can be forecasted or estimated credibly based on the optimized atmospheric circulation indices. Thus it is valuable and significant for the government to take action in dealing with the probably severe haze pollutions in advance.