The two main causes of smog in Beijing. Poison smog in China
July 21st, 2018, 09:03 am
These three antennas in one of the residential complexes of the Chinese capital just hint at how dense the local smog can be at times: otherwise, such a “fundamental” equipment cannot catch a communication signal lost in a shroud! We smile. This is, of course, a technically unjustified joke, and the picture does not show smoke, but vignetting. But the smog as such, I must warn you, in Beijing is not at all a joke. Before and during the trip, I repeatedly talked with compatriots who, seeing the haze in the air, treated it quite calmly: gas pollution as gas pollution. No masks, no idea of how this white veil differs from its Moscow "colleague". And besides, so many Chinese in the crowd are calm. What to panic?
For those who do not want to sleep peacefully and still want to learn more about Beijing smog, I recommend the specialized monitoring resource AQICN. There are also current pollution indicators in Chinese (and not only) cities, and a FAQ section with useful publications, and a separate section on masks. The main language of the texts is English. Now the answer to the question, why panic. I was in the capital of the Celestial Empire for a little over a week. During all this time, only two days after heavy rains were the period when the air pollution index of hazardous fine particles of 2.5 PM was comparable to the average values of major European capitals, incl. with preserved measurement data for Moscow. During these two days, already accustomed to the smog, I very much felt the enormous difference between the degree of purity of the air I inhaled and the air that I had breathed for several days in a row before. At the same time, the visibility horizon from observation points expanded by a dozen or even more kilometers. The other two days were the period when the air pollution index crossed the 250 AQI mark (very unhealthy, followed by city officials, I read, even shutting down businesses). Visibility during this period was similar to visibility in a fog: in places, smog waves limited the viewing horizon to only a hundred or two meters, in places it was possible to see something a kilometer away, but no tens of kilometers were available from viewpoints. On one of those days I went to the Great Wall of China. I didn’t check what the index was in her area, but it was simply impossible to visually see the wall from hill to hill. The main thing that worries me in all this haze is precisely those 2.5 PM particles, the size of which is small enough to overcome the biological barriers of the body's defenses, and due to this cause exceptional harm. It is these particles that the Beijing smog can be "proud of" if you compare the indicators of air pollution by them in China and in other countries. A couple of publications about the dangers of fine pollution ... and you, like me, if not all the time, then certainly some will spend in Beijing wearing a mask.
Masks in Beijing are easy to find. Valid in any pharmacy. They are inexpensive by European standards. For example, I bought myself a package of three masks with N95 protection level (the lower level is not recommended in articles and reviews; you will always see the level itself on the package in large print) and built-in valves to make breathing easier for 33 yuan, i.e. each mask cost an average of 11 yuan (about 110 rubles). You can buy cheaper, if you don’t really find fault with the design, or even save money on valves (I don’t recommend tourists who are actively exploring new cities, because valves really make life much easier), paying much less money for such a product. And do not buy gauze "fig leaves" if suddenly the atmospheric thickens over your head. All health!
P.S. About the mentioned Moscow smog. And about Russian in general.
I will disappoint, but there are still few resources with regular uploads of monitoring data in the public domain...
P.P.S. The great Chinese firewall did not block the AQICN resource that I visited via wi-fi throughout my trip.
One of the most big problems China is considered smog. Smog is similar to fog, in which nothing is visible a few meters away and it is very difficult to breathe.
Causes of smog in China?
Where in China could? Smog in China is caused by heavy air pollution. This is due to the fact that there are many factories in China that emit hazardous substances. In addition, coal is heated in the northern provinces, which also pollutes the atmosphere. Therefore, the dirtiest period in China is winter. In winter, smog envelops almost the entire country, but is especially common in the north: in Beijing, Changchun, Shenyang, Dalian, Qingdao. Light smog, the Chinese no longer notice. More or less fresh air in the south of China, in Tibet, in the province of Yunnan, on the island of Hainan, in the Uighur Autonomous Region and partly in Inner Mongolia. Periodically there is smog brought by the wind from northern China. Among megacities, Shenzhen is considered the cleanest in this regard.
Chinese smog is a big ecological catastrophy not only for China. But the whole world turns a blind eye to her, because no one wants to quarrel with the Middle Kingdom. Sometimes smog from China reaches Russia, sometimes it covers South Korea. It happens that smog reaches Taiwan and Southeast Asia and even America. About 28% of San Francisco's smog is said to be Chinese.
What do the Chinese breathe?
It’s even scary to imagine what the Chinese breathe and what’s going on in their lungs. People are dying from dirty air, and because of the smog it causes a lot of problems. When it rains, dirt settles on the ground and enters the water. Then it turns out to be what people eat and drink. Living in such an environment is difficult and very harmful. Periodically in Beijing and other major cities China is announced highest level danger due to smog. Everyone does not like it, but the Chinese are already used to it. While the smog intensifies in Beijing, schools are closed, many do not go to work, people try to stay at home if there is no special need, and if they go outside, they wear masks. The Chinese install air purifiers in their homes. Because of the smog, many people leave China.
Prospects for smog
According to the Chinese government, the great Chinese smog is the main dissatisfaction of the people of the country. Attempts are constantly being made to combat this phenomenon, but so far to no avail. The government plans to close all coal stations by 2017, and to completely rid China of smog by 2030. By the Winter Olympics in 2022, they promise to significantly clean the air. Most likely, production will simply be suspended for a certain period, as it was already during the summer Olympics. It seems that in the future this ecological catastrophe in China will only progress.
People in China are also trying to fight smog in a public way. They arrange exhibitions of photographs of smog, designers present entire collections of street masks, the Internet is full of various jokes about a Chinese who vacuumed the air and has already vacuumed a whole brick. You can install the application of air pollution levels throughout China on your phone.
Earlier this week, dense smog enveloped China's capital, turning skyscrapers into dark silhouettes and clean air into a yellowish mist. The Chas Pope channel has edited a visual and rather creepy time-lapse showing how the veil covers the city:
A veil of smoke covered Beijing and 24 other cities in China, as a result of which the authorities assigned the red code "dense fog" to what is happening - highest degree threats. Per last years The air quality in Beijing has dropped so much that many schools have been simply closed, and farmers staged a real panic due to the fact that the plants no longer receive the necessary doses of sunlight. Protective face masks have become commonplace for residents of the metropolis, and clear skies can often only be seen on huge screens of banners installed throughout the city.
But where did such a mass of dirty air come from? Smog in China is man-made, fueled both by emissions from industrial production and transport (most often seen in the winter, when a sharp drop in temperature leads to increased demand for electricity), and, for example, by burning coal. The latter is associated with the highest number of deaths from air pollution poisoning, which claimed the lives of 366,000 people in 2013.
Smog is caused by tiny but solid particles in the air. They can obscure visibility and make breathing difficult, cause plant-killing acid rain, and discolor paint on buildings. However, the most important problem is what happens when these particles enter the human body. Particles larger than 10 microns are of the greatest interest to doctors and researchers - even such crumbs can exacerbate asthma, damage the lungs and even cause a heart attack. For those who already have pathologies and diseases associated with the cardiovascular or respiratory system, an attempt to inhale smog can turn into a tragedy.
Beijing's woes make it worse geographical position. Beijing borders the Xishan and Yangshan mountains. Because of this, when the pressure rises, there is no movement of air masses within the city, since they cannot overcome the mountain ranges. Therefore, the air stagnates, becoming more and more dirty and dangerous to health day by day.
Now China is trying to solve this problem with all its might. For example, the government introduced a restriction on driving cars, but it is clear to everyone that this is only a temporary measure. This week, the authorities announced that they will spend about $30 billion to develop renewable energy projects, that is, solar and wind generators. Be that as it may, it will be a long way: today China is the world's largest consumer of coal, and it is not possible to quickly reorient such a powerful economic and production machine.
But there is also reason for optimism. An example for Beijing is Los Angeles, where a similar geographic and industrial environment was defeated by strict regulations and good economic regulation, resulting in the last decades of smog levels there was reduced to completely negligible, and the inhabitants of the city again saw clear skies. It remains to be hoped that the residents of Beijing will one day be able to leave the house without masks and breathe clean air to the fullest.
On December 16, the Chinese capital announced a red - the highest - alert level due to smog, which will hang over the city for six days, until December 22.
A red alert level in Beijing is declared if the concentration of harmful aerosols in the air exceeds 500 mcg/cu. m., or is at a level of over 300 for two days or over 200 for five days in a row.
Beijing's medical facilities have been put on high alert as the number of patients with heart and respiratory problems is expected to skyrocket, primarily affected by severe air pollution. On the roads of the capital, traffic is limited, which is considered the main emitter of pollutants in the capital. Canceled kindergarten classes primary schools. Construction and road works have been frozen, production has been reduced or suspended at most industrial enterprises. At the same time, employers are required to pay wages to workers during their forced downtime.
State institutions located in Beijing until Thursday (December 22) will work on a day off: only responsible duty officers are ordered to come to the offices.
Many private companies pay fairly high “hazard surcharges” to employees during smog. For example, Coca-Cola and Samsung have previously publicly announced that their “smog bonus” is 15% of salary. Other large multinational corporations do the same, but do not publicly admit it. In particular, an insider from one of the American film companies said that employees living in Beijing are generally paid double salaries. “Otherwise, people will simply not go to Beijing to work, fearing for their health,” he said.
Where does it come from
The main "supplier" of Beijing smog is recognized as the capital's car fleet, which provides about 35% of the emission of harmful aerosols into the city air. Today, there are 5.7 million cars in Beijing, which annually emit 500,000 tons of pollutants into the atmosphere.
25% of pollution is provided by dust from ongoing construction projects in the city and, of course, industrial emissions. During the current smog, Beijing journalists recalled the figurative saying of Mao Zedong that when smoke from factory chimneys rises to the west and east of Tiananmen Square, socialism will come in the country. At the same time, the reporters sadly joked: "Socialism has already arrived in Beijing." One coincidence speaks very revealingly about the role of industry in the pollution of the Beijing atmosphere: the problem of smog in the capital has sharply worsened since the end of 2011 - exactly at the moment when China came out on top in the world in terms of industrial production.
Another quarter of the amount of smog to Beijing is "exported" by the province of Hebei surrounding the capital, the most environmentally unfavorable region of China: suffice it to say that it is there that the six most polluted cities in China are located. Hebei works on coal, and produces mainly steel and cement. The concentration of these environmentally "unfriendly" industries peaks in the city of Shijiazhuang, south of Beijing, which has been nicknamed the "smog capital" in the Middle Kingdom. The wind rose in the region is such that from Shijiazhuang a toxic cloud blows with enviable regularity to the capital. That is what happened this time as well. The December 16 PMI map below perfectly illustrates how the smog crept into the capital from the south.
The residents of Zhangjiakou, Beijing's partner city for the Winter Olympics 2022, are also enriching the palette of the capital's poisoned haze. In Zhangjiakou, the capital of the PRC is disliked, and in its rural suburbs, they simply hate it so fiercely. There is a strong belief here that Beijing is sucking all the money out of the region and stealing local brides. Revenge capital subtly. Local villagers like to go out into the fields at night to burn straw (officially it is forbidden) so that the wind blows all the smoke to Beijing.
However, industrial and transport emissions, the antics of peasants and dusty construction sites are only part of the problem. One of the most important reasons for this situation lies in ... the measures taken by Beijing in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. The Chinese capital suffered from sandstorms that came from the Gobi. By the summer Olympic Games, they decided to eliminate the problem by planting a “green ring” on the path of storms: a huge forest belt that traps wind and sand. The plan worked: today Beijing forgot about dust storms. However, the blockage of winds from the Gobi led to a sharp drop in air circulation over the capital. As a result, the smog that has settled here is not blown out and can hang for days, or even weeks. The project of the Olympic forest belt played a very cruel joke on the city.
How much does he weigh
Scientists have calculated that when PMI reaches 300, the total mass of microparticles dangling in the air of the capital is 5042.4 tons, which is equal to the weight of a thousand adult African elephants.
The difference in performance: who to believe
There are two main sources of information about the state of the air in Beijing: the Hydrometeorological Center and the American Embassy. Moreover, the American diplomatic mission loves to nightmare the audience with pollution indicators that are significantly (sometimes twice or more) higher than the official ones.
It is not worth believing either one or the other.
The American embassy draws up its picture of the state of the Beijing air on the basis of a sensor installed on the territory of the diplomatic mission. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu once commented perfectly: "These measurements cannot be indicative of the situation in Beijing, since they are carried out on US territory, which is the embassy area." If, apart from jokes, then, indeed, American indicators should not be trusted. The Embassy of the United States is located in the polluted center of the city, the PMI indicator can be completely different already five kilometers from the diplomatic mission. Therefore, about the situation in Beijing - a huge metropolis with an area of 16.5 thousand square meters. km. - it is not worth judging solely according to data from "Uncle Sam".
You can not rely on the data of the capital weather forecasters. They act exactly the opposite: they collect indicators from all over Beijing and give a weighted average, which often does not indicate the real state of affairs. The fact is that there are many rural counties under the administrative subordination of Beijing, where it can breathe quite freely, while the center of the capital is suffocating from exhaust gases. The capital's Hydrometeorological Center was also caught in the "cunning" placement of sensors from which air pollution is measured. Many of them are located in parks and "at the exit" give lower pollution rates.
Finally, scientists question the very principle of monitoring the state of air in China. Today, the main indicator in this area is the concentration of particulate matter with a size of 2.5 microns (PM2.5). However, experts from Fudan University urge to focus on smaller particles, which are much more dangerous. According to them, aerosols with a particle diameter of 1 micron (PM1) cause the greatest harm to health. This is explained by the fact that PM1 is able not only to infect the lungs, but also to enter the blood from them, poisoning the body. Moreover, in the smog, established in many Chinese cities, PM1 dominates, not PM2.5. So, in the north of China, the amount of PM1 from the total volume of suspended particles in smog was 90%, in Shanghai - 80%. In this regard, scientists propose to forget about the PM2.5 index and start monitoring the content of particles in the air with a diameter of microns, which will more realistically reflect the situation with smog.
How does he kill you?
Let's start with dry statistics: today, in the capital of China, the "number one killer" is lung cancer. It causes 31.4% of premature deaths in Beijing. In second place in terms of the harvest of deaths is heart disease. Doctors admit that smog provokes both diseases. It also affects the spread of respiratory diseases. It is estimated that with an increase in PM2.5 by 10 micrograms per cubic meter, the number of viruses in the air jumps by 20%.
The WHO has set a safe limit for PM2.5 in the atmosphere at 25 micrograms per cubic meter. In China, this rate is three times higher: 75 mcg/m3. At the same time, Beijing, even in terms of average weighted indicators and even these overestimated norms, does not fit. Last year, the content of harmful aerosols in the sky above the city averaged 80.6 micrograms per cubic meter.
There is a proverb among the old-timers of the capital of China: "I lived in Beijing for a year - I breathed in a brick." So, this is all nonsense and myths: a brick in Beijing is inhaled in 100 days. This is evidenced by the results of the experience of one of the local artists, who for 100 days vacuumed the air of the capital, every day passing through the vacuum cleaner as much air as it passes through the lungs of a person in a day. And in the end, he made a brick out of the contents of the dust collector.
Smog in Beijing affects not only you, but also the development of your children. At the beginning of this year, Chinese lores told what “smog children” would look like: crooked teeth and lagging behind in development. Doctors explained: smog leads to constant irritation nasal mucosa, chronic sinusitis. As a result, the structure of breathing changes, the load on the oral cavity increases. As a result, the bite begins to change, the teeth go into a diagonal, the upper lip thickens and lifts up. In addition, impaired breathing leads to a sharp lack of oxygen during sleep, which inhibits the mental development of children.
How to protect yourself
A couple of years ago, during another severe smog, a special group of scientists from the United States arrived in Beijing. Their task was to "study the effect of nuclear winter", since the situation in the Chinese capital resembled it as much as possible.
Actually, the basic precautions during a smog are similar to those prescribed in life safety courses for survivors of a nuclear attack. The population is advised to close the windows and not stick their nose out of the house, if necessary, go outside, be sure to wear a respirator. It is strongly recommended to constantly wet clean the house, as well as take a shower more often and drink plenty of water to remove harmful substances that have entered the body.
Sports fans are not advised to do exercises even in the premises of fitness clubs. “Ventilation in sports clubs is usually powerful and takes air directly from the street, bringing smog into the room. But inside, visually, this is simply not noticeable due to the low thickness of the atmospheric column, ”explains Zhou Qinlu, a fitness expert from the Beijing Institute of Physical Education and Sports.
Meanwhile, among the Beijing population, a cardinal way to solve the problem of smog is gaining popularity: to leave the city, and from China in general to hell. Scientifically, this is called “eco-emigration”, and the term “fourth wave of emigration” is also common among Chinese sociologists. On the first wave, ordinary hard workers left China, on the second - techies, on the third - investors. On the current wave, people are running, having lost all hope for a speedy improvement in their condition. environment in the underworld.
A representative of one of the agencies involved in the processing of immigration documents, said that in weeks of heavy smog, the number of their clients usually grows by 300%. According to him, 80% of those applying for travel to another country report a nightmare ecological situation in China as one of the main reasons. According to experts' forecasts, the phenomenon of ecological emigration will be observed in the People's Republic in the next five to ten years. The backbone of eco-emigrants will be representatives of the middle class, mostly married couples aged 30 to 40 who do not want their children to grow up in an environmental disaster.
How Beijing fights smog
For the main city of all China, meeting guests with disgusting air is a disgrace. And the guests themselves are not happy: because of the smog, the flow of tourists to the capital dries up. In 2013, the drop in inbound tourism exceeded 10%. The economic losses for tour operators are nothing compared to the damage done to the international image of the city, from where even foreigners who once planned to forever link their lives with Beijing are fleeing because of the disgusting state of the environment. But in five years the metropolis will have to host the Winter Olympics. The situation needs to be urgently corrected, and the authorities understand this: a huge amount of money is already being invested in cleaning the capital's air. Half of the funds allocated to combat air pollution in the PRC was spent in Beijing: 125 billion out of 300 billion dollars.
In 2014, Beijing passed a law to combat air pollution. Since then, the capital has been fighting smog not according to a plan, but according to a legally binding document, which spells out the duties and responsibilities of not only the entire city, but also each of its districts. Moreover, if only measures to “prevent the growth” of emissions were previously fixed harmful substances, then the law refers to its “reduction”. Under the law, businesses in the capital are fined up to 500,000 yuan for refusing to stop production during heavy smog. With each repeated violation, the amount of the fine will double, and its maximum ceiling is deliberately not set.
In 2014, the “six drafts” plan was developed to restore air circulation stifled by the Olympic “green ring” in Beijing. A new man-made wind rose is being created in the city, thanks to which all smog will be blown out of Beijing. Six main routes for pumping air through the metropolis have been developed. Two of them go from northwest to southeast, four - from north to south. True, the city planning committee could not really state the principle of commanding the winds. They only reported that the project is still at the development stage, and the houses located along the route of the air corridors will not be demolished.
Such a lack of information at one time gave birth to a journalistic duck that these air corridors will be blown with the help of giant fans. Of course, this is nonsense. The air will move by itself, according to the laws of physics: from a zone of high pressure in cool suburbs to a zone of lower pressure in a hot and gassed center.
To reduce car emissions, Beijing will ban old cars with high emissions from Monday to Friday from February 15, 2017. Since December 15 this year, they are no longer allowed to appear on the capital's highways during the smog.
Advanced technologies for combating air pollution are also being actively introduced. In this aspect, a real find turned out to be a project of Dutch engineers who propose to the Beijing government to build huge air purifiers capable of passing a million cubic meters of air a day. Structures 7 meters high take coal dust from the atmosphere, which at high temperature and pressure is turned into synthetic diamonds in 30 minutes. There are plenty of “raw materials” for making such stones in the Beijing air: 32% of the local smog consists of coal soot. Money from the sale of artificial diamonds is planned to be directed to the construction of new air cleaners - in this way the project is able to finance itself. Testing of this miracle technique goes on as usual: it turned out that the air around the giant filters is 70-75% cleaner than the average in Beijing.
However, perhaps the most exciting, long-term and strategically important "anti-smog" project will be carried out not in Beijing, but in neighboring Zhangjiakou (the one where the peasants burn the fields in spite of the capital). This city will turn into the Chinese capital of alternative energy: it will be completely supplied with electricity from wind and solar energy. The experience of this municipality will be used to reduce the use of coal throughout the country, which today provides 68% of the national energy consumption, at the same time being the most smog-producing fuel.
Zhangjiakou has already established China's first renewable energy development zone. Today, the capacity of solar and wind power plants installed there reaches 8 GW, and by 2030 it will increase to 50 GW. This is more than enough: Zhangjiakou's total electricity demand does not exceed 2 GW. The rest of the electricity can already be supplied to other regions of the country. However, the project operators faced a problem: electricity from solar and wind power plants is used extremely inefficiently: up to 30% simply does not find a consumer. The main reason for this is the underdevelopment of electrical networks. The problem is not local, but national in nature: last year in the PRC, 15% of the current from wind farms and 12% from solar power plants. According to experts, due to the low efficiency of the use of alternative energy sources, the Chinese energy sector from 2011 to 2015 lost 51 billion yuan (about six billion dollars). With the efficient use of this energy, China could save 430 million tons of coal over the same period - this is a weight of 42.5 thousand eiffel towers. In China's alternative energy sector, an offensive situation is developing. Thus, China has almost twice as many wind turbines as the United States, but due to the inefficient operation of the energy system, they provide less energy than American ones. The solution to this problem was proposed by a team of scientists from China, Germany and the United States. They developed a plan according to which, in five years, the “idle consumption” of alternative energy in Zhangjiakou could be reduced from the current 30% to 1%. The essence of the proposal is to create an integrated network designed for alternative energy sources in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province sub-region. Zhangjiakou will become its heart, around which up to 50% of all alternative energy resources of the subregion are concentrated. Instead of "grounding" the generated electricity, it is supposed to be sent to a location located at a distance of only 60 km. Beijing, which craves alternative energy: in 2017, the capital's power engineers will completely abandon coal - the resulting gap will need to be filled. In addition, the demand for electricity in Beijing is constantly growing due to the growth of the fleet of electric vehicles: by 2020 there will be about 600,000 of them in the capital. All this demand can be more than satisfied by the alternative energy of Zhangjiakou. According to the estimates of the joint group of experts, it is possible to create an energy system that actively uses alternative energy sources in the subregion in 4-5 years. But this requires the development of a clear investment plan and the construction new system distribution, which will make alternative electricity more accessible. Experts are confident that the experience of creating such a system in the sub-region will be useful in the future both throughout China and beyond.
Konstantin Shchepin
MOSCOW, January 9 - RIA Novosti. The reason for the existence of constant smog in the capital of China is not only car engines, but also coal-fired power plants and boilers on the outskirts of Beijing, environmentalists say in an article published in the journal
"In the early stages of air pollution over Beijing, its condition was affected by winds that carried air at an altitude of about 500-1000 meters from the south. When the smog formed, the height of the zone where the air masses mix dropped sharply, as a result of which the concentration of harmful substances increased sharply In addition, the increase in air humidity has led to an explosive growth in the concentration of aerosol droplets in the air,” says Yuesi Wang from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences in Beijing (China).
Beijing, according to scientists, is considered one of the most polluted cities in China and on Earth as a whole. Smog almost constantly hangs over the city, which the city authorities unsuccessfully tried to disperse on the eve of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Residents of the city and environmentalists considered the cause of pollution to be a sharp increase in the number of cars: over the past 15 years, their number has increased 7 times and reached 17 million.
As Wang and his colleagues found out, in fact, not only machines were to blame for the birth of smog, but also other products of civilization and processes in the lower atmosphere, which intensified and accelerated the formation of "fog", as the Chinese authorities call it.
Beijing in the grip of smog or Breathing deeply is not recommendedOn December 16, a "red" alert level was issued in the Chinese capital due to air pollution. Since then, the situation has only worsened, but Beijing residents are waiting for the night from Wednesday to Thursday, when the coming cold snap should “ventilate” the city of many millions.Chinese ecologists came to this conclusion by observing where and how air flows in the lower atmosphere about a kilometer above the Earth's surface. Here is the so-called "mixing zone" - a layer of the atmosphere where gases rising from the surface "dissolve" in the air due to the existence of turbulent winds there.
This process plays an important role in the Earth's ecology, as it allows harmful emissions to dissipate and prevent them from accumulating over cities and industrial centers. As it turned out, the processes in this zone and its very position depend on how heavily polluted the air is.
By observing the formation of smog in Beijing, Tianqing and a number of other cities in the North China Lowland in October and November 2014, Chinese scientists found that the combination of a large amount of steam emissions, exhaust gases and warm air streams moving towards the Chinese capital from the nearby plateau, leads to a sharp decrease in the height of this zone.
At an altitude of about 500 meters above the Earth's surface, the winds do not blow as strongly as in higher layers of the atmosphere, as a result of which the speed at which exhaust gases and aerosols dissipate drops sharply, and they begin to quickly accumulate in the air over Beijing, creating smog. .
Thus, the trigger mechanism for this process is not cars in the center of the capital, but coal-fired power plants and industrial enterprises in the vicinity of Beijing, throwing aerosols into the air masses that move towards Beijing from high areas of the terrain.
This means that it will be possible to fight smog in Beijing only when restrictions on the burning of coal and oil products are introduced not only in the capital of China itself, but also in those areas through which air masses move, the scientists conclude.
