The air pollution governed by subtropical high in a coastal city in Southeast China: Formation processes and influencing mechanisms

To investigate the impact of the Western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) on the air pollution episode of Xiamen, a coastal city in Southeastern China, this study focused on formation processes and influencing mechanisms of an air pollution episode from 17th to 23rd September 2017. The results showed that the WPSH fluctuated in this period and intensified this air pollution with local emissions. The episode was divided into four stages according to WPSH center locations to diagnose the air pollution. Visibility declined below 10 km twice while fine particulate matte (PM2.5) concentration was up to 89.05 mu g/m(3) during this episode. As a consequence of high temperature (28.33 +/- 1.25 degrees C) resulted from WPSH, atmospheric oxidation at high level (140.81 +/- 56.49 mu g/m(3)) was the driving force of secondary aerosols generations. Oxidation determined photo-chemical reactions with the pathways of gas-phase and heterogeneous formation. Sulfate was formed from gas-phase oxidation by SO2 in daytime while heterogeneous reaction occurred at night. Nitrate generation was dominated by not only excess ammonium but also intense oxidation. Reconstruction light extinction results coupling with trajectories revealed that (NH4)(2)SO4, NH4NO3 and OM were the priority factors to the reduction of atmospheric visibility. These findings provided new insights of air pollution episode diagnosis and indicative function of WPSH impacts on local air quality in Southeast China. (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.