ABSTRACT
Rapid social development has led to serious air pollution problems in cities, and air pollutants, including gaseous pollutants and particulate matter, have an important impact on climate, the environment, and human health. This study analyzed the characteristics, potential sources, and causes of air pollution in the Wu-Chang-Shi urban cluster. The results showed that NO2, CO, SO2, PM10, and PM2.5 had a tendency to decrease, while O-3 showed an increasing trend. The concentrations of SO2, NO2, CO, PM2.5, and PM10 showed the highest values in winter and the lowest values in summer, with similar seasonal variations. However, the concentration of O-3 was highest in the summer and lowest in the winter. Compared with the pollutant concentrations in other Chinese cities, PM2.5, PM10, and NO2 are more polluted in the Wu-Chang-Shi urban. Meteorological factors have a greater impact on pollutant concentrations, with higher concentrations of major pollutants observed when wind speeds are low and specific wind directions are observed, and higher secondary pollutant O-3 concentrations observed when wind speeds are low and specific wind directions are observed. The backward trajectory and concentration weighting analysis show that the particulate pollutants in the Wu-Chang-Shi urban in winter mainly come from Central Asia and surrounding cities. O-3 showed an increasing trend before and after the novel coronavirus outbreak, which may be related to changes in NOX, volatile organic compounds, and solar radiation intensity, and the concentrations of SO2, NO2, CO, PM10, and PM2.5 showed an overall decreasing trend after the outbreak and was smaller than before the outbreak, which is related to the reduction of industrial and anthropogenic source emissions during the outbreak.