Contrasting Near-Surface Ozone Pollution in Wet and Dry Year over China

Shuo Ding, Xiaotong Jiang () and Changhao Wu
Additional contact information
Shuo Ding: Department of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Xiaotong Jiang: Department of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
Changhao Wu: Department of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 2, 1-11

Abstract: The near-surface ozone concentration was evaluated in two typical years with contrasting climatic impacts over the China region induced by El Niño–Southern Oscillation, which had either dry conditions (drought) with intense solar radiation and higher temperatures or wet conditions with opposite meteorological conditions. Surface ozone was observed to aggravate notably by 30% over Northern China in summer and by 50% over Eastern China in autumn in the dry year compared to the wet year. The ozone aggravation was found to be mainly ascribed to the reduced precipitation (relative humidity), enhanced solar radiation and increased temperature rather than primary emission (indicated by carbon monoxide). The health impacts showed the mortality attributable to ozone sharply increased by ~55% in Guangdong while the number of cases dying from ozone-related respiratory diseases per 100,000 population at risk was elevated by ~41% and ~17% for Guangdong (in the Pearl River Delta) and Jiangsu (in the Yangtze River Delta) province (two regions that have been reported to be highly influenced by surface ozone in China), respectively, in the dry year relative to the wet year, indicative of the significant adverse health effects of ozone aggravation. These results highlight the essential contribution of climate anomalies to surface ozone pollution. Efforts to suppress ozone aggravation can be beneficial to public health if extreme drought is predicted, and reasonable policy is implemented.

Keywords: ozone; air quality; climate anomalies; drought; health outcomes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/998/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/2/998/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:20:y:2023:i:2:p:998-:d:1026309

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().