Spatiotemporal characteristics of ozone and the formation sensitivity over the Fenwei Plain

High surface ozone (O3) levels affect human and environmental health. The Fenwei Plain (FWP), one of the critical re-gions for China's Blue Sky Protection Campaign, has reported severe O3 pollution. This study investigates the spatio-temporal properties and the causes of O3 pollution over the FWP using high-resolution data from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) from 2019 to 2021. This study characterizes spatial and temporal variations in O3 concentration by linking O3 columns and surface monitoring using a trained deep forest machine learning model. O3 concentrations in summer were 2-3 times higher than those found in winter due to higher temperatures and greater solar irradiation. The spatial distributions of O3 correlate with the solar radiation showing decreased trends from the northeastern to the southwestern FWP, with the highest O3 values in Shanxi Province and the lowest in Shaanxi Province. For urban areas, croplands and grasslands, the O3 photochemistry in summer is NOx-limited or in the transitional regime, while it is VOC-limited in winter and other seasons. Reducing NOx emissions would be effec-tive for decreasing O3 levels in summer, while VOC reductions are necessary for winter. The annual cycle in vegetated areas included both NOx-limited and transitional regimes, indicating the importance of NOx controls to protect ecosys-tems. The O3 response to limiting precursors shown here is of importance for optimizing control strategies and is illus-trated by emission changes during the 2020 COVID-19 outbreak.

Automated summary

Using TROPOMI data, this study investigated the spatio-temporal properties of O3 pollution in the Fenwei Plain, revealing higher O3 concentrations in summer due to temperature and solar radiation. The spatial distribution showed a decreasing trend from northeast to southwest, with different O3 photochemistry characteristics in urban, cropland, and grassland areas during different seasons. Reducing NOx and VOC emissions is important for mitigating O3 pollution.