Air Quality During COVID-19 Lockdown in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta: Two Different Responsive Mechanisms to Emission Reductions in China

Despite the large reduction in anthropogenic activities due to the outbreak of COVID-19, air quality in China has witnessed little improvement and featured great regional disparities. Here, by combining observational data and simulations, this work aims to understand the diverse air quality response in two city clusters, Yangtze River Delta region (YRD) and Pearl River Delta region (PRD), China. Though there was a noticeable drop in primary pollutants in both the regions, differently, the maximum daily 8 h average ozone (O₃) soared by 20.6-76.8% in YRD but decreased by 15.5-28.1% in PRD. In YRD, nitrogen oxide (NOx) reductions enhanced O₃ accumulation and hence increased secondary aerosol formation. Such an increment in secondary organic and inorganic aerosols under stationary weather reached up to 36.4 and 10.2%, respectively, which was further intensified by regional transport. PRD was quite the opposite. The emission reductions benefited PRD air quality, while regional transport corresponded to an increase of 17.3 and 9.3% in secondary organic and inorganic aerosols, respectively. Apart from meteorology, the discrepancy in O₃-VOCs-NOx relationships determined the different O₃ responses, indicating that future emission control shall be regionally specific, instead of one-size-fits-all cut. Overall, the importance of regionally coordinated and balanced control strategy for multiple pollutants is highly emphasized.