Data analysis and mining of the correlations between meteorological conditions and air quality: A case study in Beijing

The air pollution caused by PM2.5, PM10, and O3 is an emerging problem that threatens public health, especially in China’s megacities. Meteorological factors have significant impacts on the dilution and diffusion of air pollutants which further affect the distribution and concentration of pollutants. In this paper, we analyze the relationships between air pollutant concentrations and meteorological conditions in Beijing from January 2017 to January 2018. We observe that: (1) the influence of a single meteorological factor on the concentration of pollutants is limited; (2) the temperature-wind speed combination, temperature-pressure combination, and humidity-wind speed combination are highly correlated with the concentration of pollutants, indicating that a variety of meteorological factors combine to affect the concentration of pollutants; and (3) different meteorological factors have different effects on the concentration of the same pollutant, while the same meteorological conditions have different effects on the concentration of different pollutants. Our findings can assist in predicting the air quality according to meteorological conditions while further improving the urban management performance.