Articles | Volume 22, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7105-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7105-2022
Research article
 | 
02 Jun 2022
Research article |  | 02 Jun 2022

Secondary PM2.5 decreases significantly less than NO2 emission reductions during COVID lockdown in Germany

Vigneshkumar Balamurugan, Jia Chen, Zhen Qu, Xiao Bi, and Frank N. Keutsch

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Cited articles

Allen, H. M., Draper, D. C., Ayres, B. R., Ault, A., Bondy, A., Takahama, S., Modini, R. L., Baumann, K., Edgerton, E., Knote, C., Laskin, A., Wang, B., and Fry, J. L.: Influence of crustal dust and sea spray supermicron particle concentrations and acidity on inorganic NO3 aerosol during the 2013 Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 10669–10685, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10669-2015, 2015. a, b, c
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Balamurugan, V., Chen, J., Qu, Z., Bi, X., Gensheimer, J., Shekhar, A., Bhattacharjee, S., and Keutsch, F. N.: Tropospheric NO2 and O3 response to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions at the national and urban scales in Germany, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 126, e2021JD035440, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JD035440, 2021. a, b, c, d, e
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In this study, we investigated the response of secondary pollutants to changes in precursor emissions, focusing on the formation of secondary PM, during the COVID-19 lockdown period. We show that, due to the decrease in primary NOx emissions, atmospheric oxidizing capacity is increased. The nighttime increase in ozone, caused by less NO titration, results in higher NO3 radicals, which contribute significantly to the formation of PM nitrates. O3 should be limited in order to control PM pollution.
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