Aerosol optical properties observation and its relationship to meteorological conditions and emission during the Chinese National Day and Spring Festival holiday in Beijing

Abstract The reduction of traffic flow in downtown areas during the Chinese National Day holiday and the fireworks during the Spring Festival provide a unique opportunity for investigating the impact of urban anthropogenic activities on aerosol optical properties during these important Chinese festivals in Beijing. The National Day in 2014 and 2015 and Spring Festival in 2015 and 2016 were selected as study periods. The aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 440 nm increased over the all holiday periods and the average AODs during the 2015 National Day, 2015 Spring Festival and 2016 Spring Festival were about 81%, 21% and 36% higher than the background levels, respectively. The average AOD in 2014 National Day holiday was lower than background level partly influenced by precipitation event. The absorption AOD (AAOD) at 440 nm showed consistent variations with the AOD and the average AAODs during the 2015 National Day, 2015 Spring Festival and 2016 Spring Festival holidays were about 75%, 19% and 23% higher than the background level, respectively. The mean values of single scattering albedo were greater than the background level during the Spring Festival holidays, whereas the values during the National Day holiday in 2015 were lower partly due to the reduction of vehicular emissions in downtown areas. Fine- and coarse-mode particle volumes during pollution periods in holidays were ~ 0.04–0.25 μm 3 and ~ 0.03–0.15 μm 3 larger than background level, respectively. The results of potential source contribution function and concentration-weighted trajectory analyses identified the areas south of Beijing as the main source regions of PM 2.5 and were responsible for the extremely high PM 2.5 concentrations in Beijing during the holiday periods. The findings of this study may aid understanding the effects of human activities on aerosol optical properties over Beijing area and contribute to improving regional air quality.