Articles | Volume 20, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2161-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2161-2020
Research article
 | 
26 Feb 2020
Research article |  | 26 Feb 2020

Mutual promotion between aerosol particle liquid water and particulate nitrate enhancement leads to severe nitrate-dominated particulate matter pollution and low visibility

Yu Wang, Ying Chen, Zhijun Wu, Dongjie Shang, Yuxuan Bian, Zhuofei Du, Sebastian H. Schmitt, Rong Su, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Patrick Schlag, Thorsten Hohaus, Aristeidis Voliotis, Keding Lu, Limin Zeng, Chunsheng Zhao, M. Rami Alfarra, Gordon McFiggans, Alfred Wiedensohler, Astrid Kiendler-Scharr, Yuanhang Zhang, and Min Hu

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Severe haze events, with high particulate nitrate (pNO3) burden, frequently prevail in Beijing. In this study, we demonstrate a mutual-promotion effect between aerosol water uptake and pNO3 formation backed up by theoretical calculations and field observations throughout a typical pNO3-dominated haze event in Beijing wintertime. This self-amplified mutual-promotion effect between aerosol water content and particulate nitrate can rapidly deteriorate air quality and degrade visibility.
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