Trends and Variability of Ozone Pollution over the Mountain-Basin Areas in Sichuan Province during 2013–2020: Synoptic Impacts and Formation Regimes

Abstract

Sichuan Province, the most industrialized and populated region in southwestern China, has been experiencing severe ozone pollution in the boreal warm season (April–September). With a surface ozone monitoring network and reanalysis dataset, we find that nearly all cities in Sichuan Province showed positive increasing trends in the warm-season ozone levels. The warm-season daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8) ozone levels increased by 2.0 ppb (4.8%) year⁻¹ as a whole, with slightly larger trends in some sites such as a site in Zigong (5.2 ppb year⁻¹). Seasonally, the monthly ozone level in Sichuan peaks from May to August (varies with year). The predominant warm-season synoptic patterns were objectively identified based on concurrent hourly meteorological fields from ERA5. High-pressure systems promote ozone production and result in high ozone concentrations, due to strong solar radiation as well as hot and dry atmospheric conditions. The increased occurrence of high-pressure patterns probably drives the ozone increase in Sichuan. When ozone pollution is relatively weak (with MDA8 ozone around 170 μg m⁻³), the air quality standard could be achieved in the short term by a 25% reduction of NO_x and VOCs emissions. Strengthened emission control is needed when ozone pollution is more severe. Our study provides implications for effective emission control of ozone pollution in Sichuan.