Mi Zhou

Princeton University | PU · School of Public and International Affairs

Ammonia (NH3) is critical to the nitrogen cycle and PM2.5 formation, yet a great deal of uncertainty exists in its urban emission quantifications. Model-underestimated NH3 concentrations have been reported for cities, yet few studies have provided an explanation. Here, we explore reasons for severe WRF-Chem model underestimations of NH3 concentrati...

Industrial parks are emerging priorities for carbon mitigation. Here we analyze air quality, human health, and freshwater conservation co-benefits of decarbonizing the energy supply of 850 China's industrial parks. We examine a clean energy transition including early retirement of coal-fired facilities and subsequent replacement with grid electrici...

Dry deposition of ozone (O3) is a major sink of O3 in near-surface air. The uncertainties in any existing dry deposition schemes are large. In this study, we incorporate four dry deposition schemes into the Noah with multi-parameterization options model (Noah-MP) to assess the importance of choice of different dry deposition schemes on simulated dr...

The accurate estimation of ammonia emission is essential for quantifying secondary inorganic aerosol formation and reactive nitrogen deposition. During the last decades, both fertilizer type and the total amount of nitrogen fertilizer in China have changed, while the resulting changes in ammonia emissions and their spatio-temporal variations are un...

Dietary shifts from staples toward meats, fruits, and vegetables increase environmental impacts. Excessive red meat intake and micro-nutrient deficiencies also raise health concerns. Previous research examined environmental and health consequences of alternative diets but overlooked impacts on air pollution and land use change. Here we examine impl...

Worldwide efforts to switch away from coal have increased the reliance on natural gas imports for countries with inadequate domestic production. In preparing for potential gas import disruptions, there have been limited attempts to quantify the environmental and human health impacts of different options and incorporate them into decision-making. He...

The Chinese government accelerated the clean residential heating transition in northern China as part of a successful effort to improve regional air quality. Meanwhile, China has committed to carbon neutrality by 2060, making strategic choices for long-term decarbonization of the residential sector necessary. However, the synergies and trade-offs f...

The Chinese government accelerated the clean residential heating transition in northern China as part of a successful effort to improve regional air quality. Meanwhile, China has committed to carbon neutrality by 2060, making strategic choices for long-term decarbonization of the residential sector necessary. However, the synergies and trade-offs f...

Sichuan Province, the most industrialized and populated region in southwestern China, has been experiencing severe ozone pollution in the boreal warm season (April–September). With a surface ozone monitoring network and reanalysis dataset, we find that nearly all cities in Sichuan Province showed positive increasing trends in the warm-season ozone...

Intensive agricultural activities in the North China Plain (NCP) lead to substantial emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) from soil, while the role of this source on local severe ozone pollution is unknown. Here we use a mechanistic parameterization of soil NO x emissions combined with two atmospheric chemistry models to investigate the issue. We f...

China is the world's largest carbon emitter and suffers from severe air pollution, which results in approximately one million premature deaths/year. Alternative energy vehicles (AEVs) (electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and natural gas vehicles) can reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality. However, climate, air quality, and health benefits of AE...

Recent Chinese air pollution actions have significantly lowered the levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in North China via controlling emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NO x ) together with primary aerosols, while the emissions of another precursor, ammonia (NH3), have not yet been regulated. This raises a question that h...

Full text available through Nature's sharing plan at https://rdcu.be/b8v30. The link provides Enhanced PDF features but cannot be printed or downloaded. China’s gains in food production over the past four decades have been associated with substantial agricultural nitrogen losses, which contribute to air and water pollution, greenhouse gas emission...

Severe surface ozone pollution over major Chinese cities has become an emerging air quality concern, raising a new challenge for emission control measures in China. In this study, we explore the source contributions to surface daily maximum 8 h average (MDA8) ozone over China in 2016 and 2017, the 2 years with the highest surface ozone averaged ove...

Severe surface ozone pollution over major Chinese cities has become an emerging air quality concern, raising a new challenge for emission control measures in China. In this study, we explore the source contributions to surface daily maximum 8-h average (MDA8) ozone over China in 2016 and 2017, the two years with the highest surface ozone averaged o...

Temporary emission control measures in Beijing and surrounding regions have become a prevailing practice to ensure good air quality for major events (e.g., the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit on 5-11 November 2014) and to mitigate the severity of coming pollution episodes. Since PM2.5 affects meteorology via aerosol-meteorology inte...

A coupled WRF/Noah/UCM model was employed to investigate the change of the underlying surface and simulate the impacts of urban expansion in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) on regional meteorological conditions in winter (January) and summer (July) in the future. The land use types were updated in the WRF model based on "the full scale strategic planni...