Variability of SO2 in an intensive fog in North China Plain: Evidence of high solubility of SO2

A field experiment was conducted in an intensive fog event between November 5 and November 8, 2009, in a heavily SO2-polluted area in North China Plain (NCP), to measure SO2 and other air pollutants, liquid water content (LWC) of fog droplets, and other basic meteorological parameters. During the fog period, the concentrations of SO2 showed large variability, which was closely related to the LWC in the fog droplets. The averaged concentration of SO2 during non-fog periods was about 25 ppbv, while during the fog period, it rapidly reduced to about 4-7 ppbv. Such large reduction of SO2 suggested that a majority of SO2(about 70%-80%) had reverted from gas to aqueous phase on account of the high solubility of SO2 in water in the fog droplets. However, the calculated gas to aqueous phase conversion was largely underestimated by merely using the Henry's Law constant of SO2, thus suggesting that aqueous reaction of SO2 in fog droplets might play some important role in enhancing the solubility of SO2. To simplify the phenomenon, an "effective solubility coefficient" is proposed in this study. This variability of SO2 measurement during the extensive fog event provides direct evidence of oxidation of SO2 in fog droplets, thus providing important implications for better understanding of the acidity in clouds, precipitation, and fogs in NCP, now a central environmental focus in China due to its rapid economic development. (C) 2012 Chinese Society of Particuology and Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.