Comparison of Spatiotemporal Variations and Pearson Correlation Coefficients of PM2.5 Between Jiangsu Province and the State of North Carolina

摘要

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is an important air pollutant, which can lead to visibility degradation and adverse health effects. In recent years, heavy and large-scale haze has been a serious issue caused by regional high PM2.5 concentrations in China. On the contrary, the most areas of United States have been PM2.5 attainment regions due to well-established air pollution control strategies. The comparison of PM2.5 mass concentrations, both in China and United States, can provide good evaluation regarding the seriousness of air pollution in China. This research aimed to compare the PM2.5 pollution, both in Jiangsu Province of China and the State of North Carolina of United States, to evaluate the spatiotemporal variations of PM2.5. The 13 PM2.5 concentration monitoring prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province and 11 PM2.5 concentration monitoring cities in North Carolina have good quality data, and provide the 24-hr average data to evaluate the spatial and temporal variations of PM2.5 mass concentration in both the regions. Furthermore, Pearson correlation coefficient was introduced to investigate the relationship between each pair of cities, and the results show that Pearson correlation coefficients were proportional to the distance in Jiangsu. However, there was no strong correlation between the cities in North Carolina. The comparison of PM2.5 in Jiangsu and North Carolina may provide some implications for the key reasons leading to the regional high PM2.5 and the establishment of effective PM2.5 control strategies in China.