scholarly journals Quantifying the contribution of long-range transport to particulate matter (PM) mass loadings at a suburban site in the north-western Indo-Gangetic Plain (NW-IGP)

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (16) ◽  
pp. 9501-9520 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Pawar ◽  
S. Garg ◽  
V. Kumar ◽  
H. Sachan ◽  
R. Arya ◽  
...  

Abstract. Many sites in the densely populated Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) frequently exceed the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 100 μg m−3 for 24 h average PM10 and 60 μg m−3 for 24 h average PM2.5 mass loadings, exposing residents to hazardous levels of particulate matter (PM) throughout the year. We quantify the contribution of long-range transport to elevated PM levels and the number of exceedance events through a back-trajectory climatology analysis of air masses arriving at the IISER Mohali Atmospheric Chemistry facility (30.667° N, 76.729° E; 310 m a.m.s.l.) for the period August 2011–June 2013. Air masses arriving at the receptor site were classified into six clusters, which represent synoptic-scale air-mass transport patterns. Long-range transport from the west leads to significant enhancements in the average fine- and coarse-mode PM mass loadings during all seasons. The contribution of long-range transport from the west and south-west (source regions: Arabia, Thar Desert, Middle East and Afghanistan) to coarse-mode PM varied between 9 and 57 % of the total PM10–2.5 mass. Local pollution episodes (wind speed < 1 m s−1) contributed to enhanced PM2.5 mass loadings during both the winter and summer seasons and to enhanced coarse-mode PM only during the winter season. South-easterly air masses (source region: eastern IGP) were associated with significantly lower fine- and coarse-mode PM mass loadings during all seasons. The fraction of days in each season during which the PM mass loadings exceeded the national ambient air quality standard was controlled by long-range transport to a much lesser degree. For the local cluster, which represents regional air masses (source region: NW-IGP), the fraction of days during which the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 60 μg m−3 for 24 h average PM2.5 was exceeded varied between 36 % of the days associated with this synoptic-scale transport during the monsoon, and 95 % during post-monsoon and winter seasons; the fraction of days during which the NAAQS of 100 μg m−3 for the 24 h average PM10 was exceeded, varied between 48 % during the monsoon and 98 % during the post-monsoon season. Long-range transport was responsible for both, bringing air masses with a significantly lower fraction of exceedance days from the eastern IGP and air masses with a moderate increase in the fraction of exceedance days from the west (source regions: Arabia, Thar Desert, Middle East and Afghanistan). In order to bring PM mass loadings into compliance with the NAAQS and to reduce the number of exceedance days, mitigation of regional combustion sources in the NW-IGP needs to be given highest priority.

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 11409-11464 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Pawar ◽  
S. Garg ◽  
V. Kumar ◽  
H. Sachan ◽  
R. Arya ◽  
...  

Abstract. Many sites in the densely populated Indo Gangetic Plain (IGP) frequently exceed the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 100 μg m−3 for 24 h average PM10 and 60 μg m−3 for 24 h average PM2.5 mass loadings, exposing residents to hazardous levels of PM throughout the year. We quantify the contribution of long range transport to elevated PM levels and the number of exceedance events through a back trajectory climatology analysis of air masses arriving at the IISER Mohali Atmospheric Chemistry facility (30.667° N, 76.729° E; 310 m a.m.s.l.) for the period August 2011–June 2013. Air masses arriving at the receptor site were classified into 6 clusters, which represent synoptic scale air mass transport patterns and the average PM mass loadings and number of exceedance events associated with each air mass type were quantified for each season. Long range transport from the west leads to significant enhancements in the average coarse mode PM mass loadings during all seasons. The contribution of long range transport from the west and south west (Source region: Arabia, Thar desert, Middle East and Afghanistan) to coarse mode PM varied between 9 and 57% of the total PM10−2.5 mass. Local pollution episodes (wind speed < 1 m s−1) contributed to enhanced coarse mode PM only during winter season. South easterly air masses (Source region: Eastern IGP) were associated with significantly lower coarse mode PM mass loadings during all seasons. For fine mode PM too, transport from the west usually leads to increased mass loadings during all seasons. Local pollution episodes contributed to enhanced PM2.5 mass loadings during winter and summer season. South easterly air masses were associated with significantly lower PM2.5 mass loadings during all seasons. Using simultaneously measured gas phase tracers we demonstrate that most PM2.5 originated from combustion sources. The fraction of days in each season during which the PM mass loadings exceeded the national ambient air quality standard was controlled by long range transport to a much lesser degree. For the local cluster, which represents regional air masses (Source region: NW-IGP), the fraction of days during which the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 60 μg m−3 for 24 h average PM2.5 was exceeded, varied between 22% of the days associated with this synoptic scale transport during monsoon season and 85% of the days associated with this synoptic scale transport during winter season; the fraction of days during which the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) of 100 μg m−3 for the 24 h average PM10 was exceeded, varied between 37% during monsoon season and 84% during winter season. Long range transport was responsible for both, bringing air masses with a significantly lower fraction of exceedance days from the Eastern IGP and air masses with a moderate increase in the fraction of exceedance days from the West (Source region: Arabia, Thar desert, Middle East and Afghanistan). In order to bring PM mass loadings in compliance with the national ambient air quality standard (NAAQS) and reduce the number of exceedance days, mitigation of regional pollution sources in the NW-IGP needs to be given highest priority.


1970 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-352
Author(s):  
BA Begum ◽  
M Kamal ◽  
A Salam ◽  
A Salam ◽  
MA Salam ◽  
...  

Characteristics of airborne particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and black carbon (BC) concentrations have been studied at Kalabagan and Shishumela sites along Mirpur corridor in Dhaka city. These sites are the major road junction of Mirpur corridor and can represent urban background. Both PM2.5 and PM10 fractions were collected simultaneously from both sites by using Air Metrics samplers. The samplings were done for 7 days from the 19-25 January and 5 days from 27- 31 January 2009 at Kalabagan and Shisumela sites respectively. It was found that the ambient PM2.5 and PM10 concentrations were much higher than the daily Bangladesh National Ambient Air Quality Standard. From reconstructed mass (RCM) method, it was found that about 90% of PM2.5 mass comes from anthropogenic sources like motor vehicles, diesel powered generator and biomass burning sources. Since the samplings were carried out during the wintertime, the long-range transport is also expected to contribute to increase the fine PM mass. Key words: PM10; PM2.5; BC; RCM; long-range transport DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjsir.v46i3.9041 BJSIR 2011; 46(3): 343-352


2013 ◽  
Vol 807-809 ◽  
pp. 20-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Sheng ◽  
Jian Wu Shi ◽  
Sen Lin Tian ◽  
Li Mei Bi ◽  
Hao Deng ◽  
...  

According to the information of air quality which published by the urban air quality real-time publishing platform, the concentration characteristics of PM10 and PM2.5 were studied in Kunming (KM), Changsha (CS), Hangzhou (HZ), Shanghai (SH), Harbin (HEB), Beijing (BJ), Wuhan (WH) and Guangzhou (GZ). The results show that the concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 exceeded the Ambient Air Quality Standard (GB3095-2012) in varying degrees in March, 2013. The concentrations of PM10 in Wuhan is the highest, reached 164μg/m3, exceeded the standard by 9.3%; the concentrations of PM2.5 is much higher in Wuhan, Changsha and Beijing, the average concentrations were 96μg/m3, 103μg/m3 and 110μg/m3, exceeded the standard by 28.0%, 37.3% and 46.7% respectively. The correlation of PM10 with PM2.5 in most of these cities was good in March. The correlation analysis of pollutant with meteorological factor in Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou was also studied, the results show that the concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 are weakly positive correlation with temperature in the four cities, negative correlation with relative humidity without Beijing, and negative correlation with wind speed.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaobin Xu ◽  
Hualong Zhang ◽  
Weili Lin ◽  
Ying Wang ◽  
Shihui Jia

Abstract. Both peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and ozone (O3) are key photochemical products in the atmosphere. Most of the previous in-situ observations of both gases have been made in polluted regions and at low altitude sites. Here we present first simultaneous measurements of PAN and O3 at Nam Co (NMC, 90°57′ E, 30°46′ N, 4745 m  a.s.l.), a remote site in the central Tibetan Plateau (TP). The observations were made during summer periods in 2011 and 2012. The PAN concentrations averaged 0.36 ppb (range: 0.11–0.76 ppb) and 0.44 ppb (range: 0.21–0.99 ppb) during 16–25 August 2011 and 15 May to 13 July 2012, respectively. The O3 concentration varied from 27.9 ppb to 96.4 ppb, with an average of 60.0 ppb. Profound diurnal cycles of PAN and O3 were observed, with minimum values around 05:00 LT, steep rises in the early morning, and broader platforms of high values during 09:00–20:00 LT. We find that the evolution of planetary boundary layer (PBL) played a key role in shaping the diurnal patterns of both gases, particularly the rapid increases of PAN and O3 in the early morning. Air entrainment from the free troposphere into the PBL seemed to cause the early morning increase and be a key factor of sustaining the daytime high concentrations of both gases. The days with higher daytime PBL (about 3 km) showed stronger diurnal variations of both gases and were mainly distributed in the drier pre-monsoon period, while those with shallower daytime PBL (about 2 km) showed minor diurnal variations of both gases and were mainly distributed in the humid monsoon period. Episodes of higher PAN levels were observed occasionally at NMC. These PAN episodes were caused either by rapid downward transport of air masses from the middle/upper troposphere or by long-range transport of PAN plumes from North India. The PAN level in the downward transport cases ranged from 0.5 ppb to 0.7 ppb and may indicate the PAN abundance in the middle/upper troposphere. In the long-range transport case, the PAN level varied in the range of 0.6–1.0 ppb. This long-range transport process influenced most of the western and central TP region for about a week in early June 2012. Our results suggest that polluted air masses from South Asia can significantly enhance the PAN level over the TP. As PAN act as a reservoir of NOx, the impacts of pollution transport from South Asia on tropospheric photochemistry over the TP region deserve further studies.


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