Analysis of Ozone Pollution Characteristics and Influencing Factors in Northeast Economic Cooperation Region, China

Abstract

The increase in tropospheric ozone (O₃) concentration has become one of the factors restricting urban development. This paper selected the important economic cooperation areas in Northeast China as the research object and collected the hourly monitoring data of pollutants and meteorological data in 11 cities from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019. The temporal and spatial variation trend of O₃ concentration and the effects of meteorological factors and other pollutants, including CO (carbon monoxide), SO₂ (sulfur dioxide), NO₂ (nitrogen dioxide), and PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ (PM particles with aerodynamic diameters less than 2.5 μm and 10 μm) on ozone concentration were analyzed. At the same time, the variation period of O₃ concentration was further analyzed by Morlet wavelet analysis. The results showed that the O₃ pollution in the study area had a significant spatial correlation. The spatial distribution showed that the O₃ concentration was relatively high in the south and low in the northeast. Seasonally, the O₃ concentration was the highest in spring, followed by summer, and the lowest in winter. The diurnal variation of O₃ concentration presented a “single peak” pattern. O₃ concentration had a significant positive correlation with temperature, sunshine duration, and wind speed and a significant anticorrelation with CO, NO₂, SO₂, and PM_2.5 concentration. Under the time scale of a = 9, 23, O₃ had significant periodic fluctuation, which was similar to those of wind speed and temperature.