Recently, the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC) released the 2022 edition of Statistical Data of Chinese Science and Technology Papers. The article entitled Enhanced secondary pollution offset reduction of primary emissions during COVID-19 lockdown in China published in the National Science Review (NSR) by Professor Aijun Ding and Professor Xin Huang's team was selected as one of the China's 100 most influential international academic papers in 2021, which is the only paper in geology selected in the journal in 2021, and it is the second time a paper from the team has been selected after 2020.

The paper, published in NSR in 2021, analyzed multiple ground-based and satellite-based observations of air pollutants during the COVID-19 lockdown, estimated the changes in emission intensity of various sources before and after the lockdown based on anthropogenic activity levels, and quantified the impact of pollutant reduction on gaseous pollutants, intermediate reaction products and fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) concentrations in eastern China with numerical model simulations. The study found that large decreases in nitrogen oxides emissions from transportation increased ozone and nighttime NO₃ radical formation, and these increases in atmospheric oxidizing capacity in turn facilitated the formation of secondary particulate matter. The study further analyzed the response of ozone and secondary particulate to the reduction of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic matters on a regional scale in eastern China, and suggested that cross-regional and multi-pollutant synergistic emission reduction should be fully considered in the prevention and control of autumn and winter haze pollution. The paper has been cited more than 400 times since its publication (including citations by nearly 20 top-tier international journal papers and the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report).

It is reported that the China's 100 Most Influential International Academic Papers are selected from Chinese first-authored papers every year. The selection criteria include the innovativeness of the paper, the level of the journal, the dominance of Chinese authors in co-authored papers, the reference of the paper, etc. The recently announced final selection comes from 69 journals such as Nature, Science and Cell, belonging to 82 institutions and covering 26 disciplines including chemistry, clinical medicine, biology, physics, materials science and earth sciences.

Article link:

Huang, X., Ding, A., Gao, J., Zheng, B. et al. Enhanced secondary pollution offset reduction of primary emissions during COVID-19 lockdown in China. National Science Review 8, nwaa137 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaa137  

Huang, X., Ding, A., Wang, Z., Ding, K. et al. Amplified transboundary transport of haze by aerosol–boundary layer interaction in China. Nature Geoscience 13, 428–434 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-020-0583-4