scholarly journals In-depth characterization of submicron particulate matter inter-annual variations at a street canyon site in northern Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 6297-6314
Author(s):  
Luis M. F. Barreira ◽  
Aku Helin ◽  
Minna Aurela ◽  
Kimmo Teinilä ◽  
Milla Friman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Aerosol Particle ◽  
Street Canyon ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Inorganic Species ◽  
Pollution Episodes

Abstract. Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in air pollution. Aerosol particle chemical composition is highly variable depending on the season, hour of the day, day of the week, meteorology, and location of the measurement site. Long measurement periods and highly time-resolved data are required in order to achieve a statistically relevant amount of data for assessing those variations and evaluating pollution episodes. In this study, we present continuous atmospheric PM1 (particulate matter < 1 µm) concentration and composition measurements at an urban street canyon site located in Helsinki, Finland. The study was performed for 4.5 years (2015–2019) and involved highly time-resolved measurements by taking advantage of a suite of online state-of-the-art instruments such as an aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM), a multi-angle absorption photometer (MAAP), a differential mobility particle sizer (DMPS), and an Aethalometer (AE). PM1 consisted mostly of organics, with mean mass concentrations of 2.89 µg m−3 (53 % of PM1) followed by inorganic species (1.56 µg m−3, 29 %) and equivalent black carbon (eBC, 0.97 µg m−3, 18 %). A trend analysis revealed a decrease in BC from fossil fuel (BCFF), organics, and nitrate over the studied years. Clear seasonal and/or diurnal variations were found for the measured atmospheric PM1 constituents. Particle number and mass size distributions over different seasons revealed the possible influence of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) during summer and the dominance of ultrafine traffic aerosols during winter. The seasonality of measured constituents also impacted the particle's coating and absorptive properties. The investigation of pollution episodes observed at the site showed that a large fraction of aerosol particle mass was comprised of inorganic species during long-range transport, while during local episodes eBC and organics prevailed together with elevated particle number concentration. Overall, the results increased knowledge of the variability of PM1 concentration and composition in a Nordic traffic site and its implications on urban air quality. Considering the effects of PM mitigation policies in northern Europe in the last decades, the results obtained in this study may be considered illustrative of probable future air quality challenges in countries currently adopting similar environmental regulations.

scholarly journals In-depth characterization of submicron particulate matter inter-annual variations at a street canyon site in Northern Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis M. F. Barreira ◽  
Aku Helin ◽  
Minna Aurela ◽  
Kimmo Teinilä ◽  
Milla Friman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Pollution ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Atmospheric Aerosols ◽  
Street Canyon ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Annual Variations ◽  
Day Of The Week ◽  
Pollution Episodes

Abstract. Atmospheric aerosols play an important role in air pollution. Aerosol particle's chemical composition is highly variable depending on the season, hour of the day, day of the week, meteorology, and the location of the measurement site. Long measurement periods and high time-resolved data are required in order to achieve statistically relevant amount of data for assessing those variations and evaluate pollution episodes. In this study, we present continuous atmospheric PM1 (particulate matter

scholarly journals The impact of measures to reduce ambient air PM<sub>10</sub> concentrations originating from road dust, evaluated for a street canyon in Helsinki

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (17) ◽  
pp. 11199-11212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Stojiljkovic ◽  
Mari Kauhaniemi ◽  
Jaakko Kukkonen ◽  
Kaarle Kupiainen ◽  
Ari Karppinen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Street Canyon ◽  
Dust Emission ◽  
Road Dust ◽  
Ambient Air ◽  
Air Quality Measurements ◽  
Emission Models ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Quality Measurements

Abstract. We have numerically evaluated how effective selected potential measures would be for reducing the impact of road dust on ambient air particulate matter (PM10). The selected measures included a reduction of the use of studded tyres on light-duty vehicles and a reduction of the use of salt or sand for traction control. We have evaluated these measures for a street canyon located in central Helsinki for four years (2007–2009 and 2014). Air quality measurements were conducted in the street canyon for two years, 2009 and 2014. Two road dust emission models, NORTRIP (NOn-exhaust Road TRaffic Induced Particle emissions) and FORE (Forecasting Of Road dust Emissions), were applied in combination with the Operational Street Pollution Model (OSPM), a street canyon dispersion model, to compute the street increments of PM10 (i.e. the fraction of PM10 concentration originating from traffic emissions at the street level) within the street canyon. The predicted concentrations were compared with the air quality measurements. Both road dust emission models reproduced the seasonal variability of the PM10 concentrations fairly well but under-predicted the annual mean values. It was found that the largest reductions of concentrations could potentially be achieved by reducing the fraction of vehicles that use studded tyres. For instance, a 30 % decrease in the number of vehicles using studded tyres would result in an average decrease in the non-exhaust street increment of PM10 from 10 % to 22 %, depending on the model used and the year considered. Modelled contributions of traction sand and salt to the annual mean non-exhaust street increment of PM10 ranged from 4 % to 20 % for the traction sand and from 0.1 % to 4 % for the traction salt. The results presented here can be used to support the development of optimal strategies for reducing high springtime particulate matter concentrations originating from road dust.

scholarly journals Particle number concentrations and size distribution in a polluted megacity: The Delhi Aerosol Supersite study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shahzad Gani ◽  
Sahil Bhandari ◽  
Kanan Patel ◽  
Sarah Seraj ◽  
Prashant Soni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Ultrafine Particles ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Fine Particulate Matter ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Particle Size Distributions ◽  
Time Resolved ◽  
Fine Particulate ◽  
National Capital ◽  
Order Of Magnitude

Abstract. The Indian national capital, Delhi, routinely experiences some of the world's highest urban particulate matter concentrations. While fine particulate matter (PM2.5) mass concentrations in Delhi are at least an order of magnitude higher than in many western cities, the particle number (PN) concentrations are not similarly elevated. Here we report on 1.25 years of highly time resolved particle size distributions (PSD) data in the size range of 12–560 nm. We observed that the large number of accumulation mode particles – that constitute most of the PM2.5 mass – also contributed substantially to the PN concentrations. The ultrafine particles (UFP, Dp 

scholarly journals Efficiency of an Air Cleaner Device in Reducing Aerosol Particulate Matter (PM) in Indoor Environments

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Fermo ◽  
Valeria Comite ◽  
Luigi Falciola ◽  
Vittoria Guglielmi ◽  
Alessandro Miani
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air Quality ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Indoor Environments ◽  
Aerodynamic Diameter ◽  
Healthy Environment ◽  
Household Environment ◽  
Commercial Device

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in household environments is mandatory since people spend most of their time in indoor environments. In order to guarantee a healthy environment, air purification devices are often employed. In the present work, a commercial household vacuum cleaner has been tested in order to verify its efficiency in reducing the mass concentration and particle number of aerosol particulate matter (PM). The efficiency has been tested measuring, while the instrument was working, PM10 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm), PM2.5 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm), PM1 (particles with aerodynamic diameter less than 1 μm), and 7 size-fractions in the range between 0.3 and >10 μm. Measurements have been carried out by means of a portable optical particle counter instrument and simulating the working conditions typical of a household environment. It has been found that the tested commercial device significantly reduces both PM concentrations and particle number, especially in the finest fraction, i.e., particles in the range 0.3–0.5 μm, allowing an improvement of indoor air quality.

scholarly journals The 2013 severe haze over the southern Hebei, China: model evaluation, source apportionment, and policy implications

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 28395-28451 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. T. Wang ◽  
Z. Wei ◽  
J. Yang ◽  
Y. Zhang ◽  
F. F. Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Source Apportionment ◽  
Model Evaluation ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Fine Grid ◽  
Regional Sources ◽  
Haze Pollution

Abstract. Extremely severe and persistent haze occurred in January 2013 over the eastern and northern China. The record-breaking high concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) of more than 700 μg m−3 on hourly average and the persistence of the episodes have raised widespread, considerable public concerns. During that period, seven of the top ten polluted cities in China were within Hebei Province. The three cities in southern Hebei, Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, and Handan, have been listed as the top three polluted cities according to the statistics for the first half year of 2013. In this study, the Mesoscale Modeling System Generation 5 (MM5) and the Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system are applied to simulate the 2013 severe winter regional hazes in East Asia and the northern China at horizontal grid resolutions of 36 and 12 km, respectively, using the Multi-resolution Emission Inventory of China (MEIC). The source contributions of major source regions and sectors to PM2.5 concentrations in the three most-polluted cities in southern Hebei are quantified aiming at the understanding of the sources of the severe haze pollution in this region, and the results are compared with December 2007, the haziest month in 2001–2010. Model evaluation against meteorological and air quality observations indicates an overall acceptable performance and the model tends to underpredict PM2.5 and coarse particulate matter (PM10) concentrations during the extremely severe polluted episodes. The MEIC inventory is proved to be a good estimation in terms of total emissions of cities but uncertainties exist in the spatial allocations of emissions into fine grid resolutions within cities. The source apportionment shows that emissions from the northern Hebei and the Beijing–Tianjin city cluster are two major regional contributors to the pollution in January 2013 in Shijiazhuang, comparing with those from Shanxi and the northern Hebei for December 2007. For Xingtai and Handan, the emissions from the northern Hebei and Henan are important. The industrial and domestic sources are the most significant local contributors, and the domestic and agricultural emissions from Shandong and Henan are unnegligible regional sources, especially for Xingtai and Handan. Even in the top two haziest months (i.e., January 2013 and December 2007), a large fraction of PM2.5 in the three cities may originate from quite different regional sources. These results indicate the importance of establishing a regional joint framework of policymaking and action system to effectively mitigate air pollution in this area, not only over Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei area, but also surrounding provinces such as Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi.

scholarly journals The 2013 severe haze over southern Hebei, China: model evaluation, source apportionment, and policy implications

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 3151-3173 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. T. Wang ◽  
Z. Wei ◽  
J. Yang ◽  
Y. Zhang ◽  
F. F. Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Source Apportionment ◽  
Model Evaluation ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Fine Grid ◽  
Regional Sources ◽  
Haze Pollution

Abstract. Extremely severe and persistent haze occurred in January 2013 over eastern and northern China. The record-breaking high concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) of more than 700 μg m−3 on hourly average and the persistence of the episodes have raised widespread, considerable public concerns. During that period, 7 of the top 10 polluted cities in China were within the Hebei Province. The three cities in southern Hebei (Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, and Handan) have been listed as the top three polluted cities according to the statistics for the first half of the year 2013. In this study, the Mesoscale Modeling System Generation 5 (MM5) and the Models-3/Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) modeling system are applied to simulate the 2013 severe winter regional hazes in East Asia and northern China at horizontal grid resolutions of 36 and 12 km, respectively, using the Multi-resolution Emission Inventory for China (MEIC). The source contributions of major source regions and sectors to PM2.5 concentrations in the three most polluted cities in southern Hebei are quantified by aiming at the understanding of the sources of the severe haze pollution in this region, and the results are compared with December 2007, the haziest month in the period 2001–2010. Model evaluation against meteorological and air quality observations indicates an overall acceptable performance and the model tends to underpredict PM2.5 and coarse particulate matter (PM10) concentrations during the extremely polluted episodes. The MEIC inventory is proven to be a good estimation in terms of total emissions of cities but uncertainties exist in the spatial allocations of emissions into fine grid resolutions within cities. The source apportionment shows that emissions from northern Hebei and the Beijing-Tianjin city cluster are two major regional contributors to the pollution in January 2013 in Shijiazhuang, compared with those from Shanxi and northern Hebei for December 2007. For Xingtai and Handan, the emissions from northern Hebei and Henan are important. The industrial and domestic sources are the most significant local contributors, and the domestic and agricultural emissions from Shandong and Henan are non-negligible regional sources, especially for Xingtai and Handan. Even in the top two haziest months (i.e., January 2013 and December 2007), a large fraction of PM2.5 in the three cities may originate from quite different regional sources. These results indicate the importance of establishing a regional joint framework of policymaking and action system to effectively mitigate air pollution in this area, not only over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, but also surrounding provinces such as Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi.

Non-destructive method based on infrared spectroscopy and partial least square regression for the quantification of the ionic component of atmospheric particulate matter

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ugo Molteni ◽  
Andrea Piazzalunga ◽  
Paola Fermo
Keyword(s):  
Infrared Spectroscopy ◽  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Radiative Forcing ◽  
Partial Least Square ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Partial Least Square Regression ◽  
Atmospheric Environment ◽  
Inorganic Species

&lt;p&gt;Atmospheric aerosols influence radiative forcing through interaction with solar radiation and indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei and have a negative impact on air quality especially in urban scenarios. With socio-economic models suggesting that in a growing global population, 70% of the humans will live in urban areas by 2050, the adverse impact on urban air quality is a prominent societal and health issue, expected to become more and more severe in the future. In order to introduce effective mitigation strategies and monitor their effect, the state and characteristics of pollution need to be characterized and main sources identified. Offline-analysis of particulate matter (PM) collected on filter samples offers such insight. However, PM chemical composition is highly complex, and its comprehensive characterization and quantification requires advanced instrumentation and data analysis techniques and strategies.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Here, we present the development and application of a novel analytical nondestructive method. We acquired Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra of ambient PM collected on Teflon filters at various locations in Italy. FTIR allows to obtain high-resolution spectral data non-destructively and therefore to detect and quantify functional groups of organic and inorganic species present in the aerosol PM. The spectral dataset was analyzed by applying partial least squares regression (PLS regression) methods in order to allow quantification of ammonium, sulphate and nitrate ionic PM components. This statistical method allowed to disentangle the inner complexity of the PM sample and to train a statistical model for each of the three ionic species. In our conference contribution, the so developed models are discussed and compared with the more traditional analytical method, ionic chromatography (IC).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cuccia, et al. (2011). Atmospheric Environment, 45(35), 6481&amp;#8211;6487. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.08.004&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Piazzalunga, A., et al. (2013). Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 405(2&amp;#8211;3), 1123&amp;#8211;1132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-012-6433-5&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Russell, L. M., et al. (2009). Atmospheric Environment, 43(38), 6100&amp;#8211;6105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.09.036&lt;/p&gt;

Annual and interannual variation in boreal forest aerosol particle number and volume concentration and their connection to particle formation

Tellus B ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miikka Dal Maso ◽  
Antti Hyvärinen ◽  
Mika Komppula ◽  
Peter Tunved ◽  
Veli-Matti Kerminen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boreal Forest ◽  
Aerosol Particle ◽  
Interannual Variation ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Volume Concentration ◽  
Particle Formation
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