The removal of atmospheric aerosols in a heavy industrial coastal city in China with frequent rainfall

Rapid urbanization and heavy industrialization generally result in serious aerosol pollution. Contrary to this conventional wisdom, Zhanjiang, one industrial city in the southernmost point of the Chinese mainland, is not accompanied by aerosol pollution and its air quality index always ranks high compared to other cities in China. To investigate this contradiction, 72-hour total suspended particles (TSPs) and water-soluble inorganic ions (WSIIs; including Mg2+, Ca2+, K+, Na+, NH4+, Cl-, NO3-, and SO42-) were collected in Zhanjiang, China, from November 2018 to November 2019. The relative humidity (RH) was higher than 80% throughout the whole year in Zhanjiang. However, the TSPs and WSIIs were not correlated with RH, indicating that RH can increase the particle size, but this had a minor impact on the dry deposition rate. The larger particles induced by RH were easily captured by wet precipitation, leading to a seasonal pattern with higher TSP and WSII mass concentrations during the dry and cool season and lower values during the hot and rainy season. This seasonal pattern and high aerosol acidity indicate that TSPs, WSIIs, and acidic gaseous precursors from the local sources were preferentially scavenged by the abundant rainfall and high precipitation frequency. Principal component analysis (PCA) results suggest that relatively clean marine emissions and secondary aerosols were the most important sources of TSPs and WSIIs. Our results indicate that the inconsistency between the heavy industrial activities and excellent air quality in Zhanjiang may be related to the high precipitation frequency (63%) and the marine dilution effect (27%).