Solar radiation plays a crucial role in the formation of sea-land breeze (SLB) circulation in coastal areas, and the SLB circulation in turn influences the atmospheric diffusion of pollutants in coastal cities. Therefore, the characteristics of the SLB and its impacts on the pollutant distributions in Shanghai, China, are numerically investigated for three (low, medium, and high) daily solar radiation intensities (DSRIs). The results show that the pollutant dispersion is affected by both the horizontal flow of SLB circulation and the vertical thermal plume (TP). The SLB only transports pollutants within the near-ground layer, while TP removes pollutants from the boundary layer and then improves near-ground air quality. Both the intensities of the SLB and TP increase with the increase of DSRI, however, the relative strength of the two are different at different DSRIs. When the DSRI is high (28.35 MJ/m2/day) or low (9.45 MJ/m2/day) during the daytime, the sea breeze (SB) is much stronger than the TP, so the prevailing flow direction on the land is horizontal, causing large amounts of pollutants to be blown inland. For the medium DSRI (18.90 MJ/m2/day), the TP is more powerful in the early stage of the SB period, so the airflow across the land is dominated by the rising TP. Pollutants are mainly transported to the upper atmosphere and the best air quality can be achieved in the residential region. At night, the worst air quality occurs at low DSRI, because when the DSRI is low, the speed of the land breeze is also low and this decelerates the diffusion of pollutants to the sea by the wind. Display omitted •Effect of daily solar radiation intensity (DSRI) on the sea-land breeze (SLB) is studied.•Pollutant dispersion patterns for different SLB intensities are compared.•The height of the low-speed region (i.e., pollutant accumulation) depends on DSRI.•Thermal plume facilitates the pollutant vertical transport at medium DSRI.•Pollutants accumulated on the sea surface are re-blown to land only in case of low DSRI.