A quantitative analysis of the driving factors affecting seasonal variation of aerosol pH in Guangzhou, China

Aerosol acidity is of great interest due to its effects on atmospheric chemical processes and impact on human health; however, the driving factors of aerosol acidity have only been scarcely investigated. This study characterized the aerosol acidity during the wet and dry seasons in Guangzhou, China, and systematically analyzed the seasonal variation and the corresponding driving factors of aerosol acidity followed by the discussion of their impact on gas-aerosol partitioning of NH3 and HNO3. It was demonstrated that the pH of PM2.5 was 0.08 unit lower (more acidic) during wet season than during the dry season and the aerosol acidity varied less in South China than that in North China. Additionally, our results showed that the meteorological parameters including temperature and relative humidity have larger effect on aerosol pH variation than chemical species. Particularly, the lower temperature during dry season had the positive influence (0.38 pH unit) on aerosol pH compared to the wet season; however, the negative effect due to relative humidity (RH) and chemical species resulted in a smaller seasonal variation of aerosol pH between these two seasons. The sensitivity analysis showed that the increase of temperature has negative impact (reducing pH) on aerosol pH with an almost linear relationship, while RH and chemical species represented a two-phase linear and nonlinear effect, respectively. Finally, the calculation of gas-aerosol partitioning indicated that the temperature had the largest influence on the seasonal variation of gas-aerosol partitioning for both HNO3 and NH3 followed by liquid water content and non-ideality, while aerosol acidity imposed the lowest impact, which suggests that all the parameters including meteorological and chemical species should be comprehensively evaluated to devise a PM2.5 control strategy. [Display omitted] •First work to quantify the contribution of factors to the variation of aerosol acidity.•Meteorological parameters have larger effect on seasonal variation of aerosol acidity than chemical species.•Temperature has the largest contribution on gas-aerosol partitioning while acidity has the lowest contribution.