Samples of fog water collected in the area of Guangzhou during February, March and April of 2005 are used in this work to study the chemical composition of fog water in polluting fog there. Three typical episodes of polluting fog are analyzed in terms of ionic concentration and their possible sources. It is found that the concentration of various ions in fog water is much higher than those in rainwater. Fog not only blocks visual range but contains liquid particles that result in high degree of pollution and are very harmful to human health. SO4= is the anion with the highest concentration in fog water, followed by NO3-. For the cation, Ca++ and NH4+ are the highest in concentration. It is then known that rainwater is more acidic than fog water, indicating that ionic concentration of fog water is much higher than that of rainwater, but there are much more buffering materials in fog water, like NH4+ and Ca++. There is significant enrichment of Ca++, SO4=, and Mg++ in fog water. In the Guangzhou area, fog water from polluting fog is mainly influenced continental environment and human activity. The episodes of serious fog pollution during the time have immediate relationships with the presence of abundant water vapor and large amount of polluting aerosol particles.
In recent years the pollution of aerosol is getting worse and worse in Guangzhou area. The haze weather mainly occurs from October to April of the following year, resulting in visibility deterioration. From the beginning of the 1980's the visibility dramatically deteriorated, obviously increasing haze weather, in which there are three big fluctuations, respectively showing the periods of pollution of dust, sulphate and dust, fine particle from photochemical process and sulphate and dust accompanying the development of economy. The long-term tendency of visibility caused by fog and light fog does not have the tendency due to human activity or economical development and the variation mainly show the inner interannual and interdecadal variation of climate. The deterioration of visibility has close relation to the fine particles in Guangzhou area, with half of PM10 surpassing the limits set by national second graded standard, meanwhile, all values of PM2.5 rise above the day-mean limits of American national standard, indicating very high fine particle concentration. The ratio of PM2.5 to PM10 is also very high, reaching 62% - 69%, especially higher in dry seasons than in rainy seasons.
