Articles | Volume 22, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12207-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12207-2022
Research article
 | 
19 Sep 2022
Research article |  | 19 Sep 2022

The effect of COVID-19 restrictions on atmospheric new particle formation in Beijing

Chao Yan, Yicheng Shen, Dominik Stolzenburg, Lubna Dada, Ximeng Qi, Simo Hakala, Anu-Maija Sundström, Yishuo Guo, Antti Lipponen, Tom V. Kokkonen, Jenni Kontkanen, Runlong Cai, Jing Cai, Tommy Chan, Liangduo Chen, Biwu Chu, Chenjuan Deng, Wei Du, Xiaolong Fan, Xu-Cheng He, Juha Kangasluoma, Joni Kujansuu, Mona Kurppa, Chang Li, Yiran Li, Zhuohui Lin, Yiliang Liu, Yuliang Liu, Yiqun Lu, Wei Nie, Jouni Pulliainen, Xiaohui Qiao, Yonghong Wang, Yifan Wen, Ye Wu, Gan Yang, Lei Yao, Rujing Yin, Gen Zhang, Shaojun Zhang, Feixue Zheng, Ying Zhou, Antti Arola, Johanna Tamminen, Pauli Paasonen, Yele Sun, Lin Wang, Neil M. Donahue, Yongchun Liu, Federico Bianchi, Kaspar R. Daellenbach, Douglas R. Worsnop, Veli-Matti Kerminen, Tuukka Petäjä, Aijun Ding, Jingkun Jiang, and Markku Kulmala

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Cited articles

Agarwal, A., Kaushik, A., Kumar, S., and Mishra, R. K.: Comparative study on air quality status in Indian and Chinese cities before and during the COVID-19 lockdown period, Air Qual. Atmos. Health, 1–12, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11869-020-00881-z, 2020. 
Bao, R., and Zhang, A.: Does lockdown reduce air pollution?, Evidence from 44 cities in northern China, Sci. Total Environ., 731, 139052, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139052, 2020. 
Cai, R. and Jiang, J.: A new balance formula to estimate new particle formation rate: reevaluating the effect of coagulation scavenging, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12659–12675, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12659-2017, 2017. 
Cai, R., Yang, D., Fu, Y., Wang, X., Li, X., Ma, Y., Hao, J., Zheng, J., and Jiang, J.: Aerosol surface area concentration: a governing factor in new particle formation in Beijing, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12327–12340, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12327-2017, 2017. 
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Short summary
Atmospheric new particle formation (NPF) is a dominant source of atmospheric ultrafine particles. In urban environments, traffic emissions are a major source of primary pollutants, but their contribution to NPF remains under debate. During the COVID-19 lockdown, traffic emissions were significantly reduced, providing a unique chance to examine their relevance to NPF. Based on our comprehensive measurements, we demonstrate that traffic emissions alone are not able to explain the NPF in Beijing.
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