The seasonal variation and spatial distribution of atmospheric particles at three islands in the Taiwan Strait were investigated. Atmospheric particles (PM 10 ) were collected at three offshore islands (i.e., Kinmen islands, Matsu islands, and Penghu Islands) and two coastal regions (i.e., Xiamen and Fuzhou) in the years of 2008-2012. Field sampling results indicated that the average PM 10 concentrations at the Kinmen islands were generally higher than other sampling sites, suggesting that a superimposition phenomenon was regularly observed during the air pollution episodes at Kinmen Islands and Xiamen region. PM 10 samples were analyzed for their chemical composition, including water-soluble ions, metallic elements, and carbonaceous content. The most abundant water-soluble ionic species of PM 10 were recognized as SO 4 2-, NO 3 -, and NH 4 + , indicating that PM 10 was mainly composed of secondary inorganic aerosols. Although natural crustal elements dominated the metallic content of PM 10 , the most abundant anthropogenic metals of PM 10 were Zn and Pb. Enrichment factor calculations showed that Ni, Cr, and Zn were the enriched elements emitted mainly from anthropogenic sources. Moreover, the OC concentration of PM 10 was always higher than that of EC at all sampling sites. High OC/EC ratios of PM 10 were commonly observed at the sampling sites on the Matsu Islands, the Fuzhou region, and the Penghu Islands. Source apportionment results indicated that vehicular exhausts were the main source of PM 10 , and followed by industrial boilers, secondary aerosols, soil dusts, biomass burning, petrochemical plants, steel plants, oceanic spray, and cement plants at the island and coastal sampling sites in the Taiwan Strait.
This study presents a comparison of trace (Hg) and criteria (CO, SO 2 , NO x , O 3 and PM 10 ) air pollutants monitored at two remote sites with the same latitude but different altitude: Mt. Lulin and the Penghu Islands, in Taiwan from 2011 to 2012. A filtering technique was comprehensively applied to distinguish the climatic characteristics of the two remote sites, as well as to determine their discriminant factor. The concentrations of air pollutants monitored at Mt. Lulin were generally lower than those at the Penghu Islands, with the exception of O 3 concentration. PM 10 and NO x were the important factors that can distinguish two clusters of measurement data at the two remote sites, and a criteria discriminant factor of atmospheric parameters derived from these two air pollutants. For both high-and low-frequency patterns, the concentrations of NO x and PM 10 exhibit significant differences between the two remote sites. However, O 3 concentrations showed almost no differences between these two remote sites, implying that the pattern for the formation and transportation of O 3 at these two sites resulted from similar mechanisms. Moreover, atmospheric mercury (TGM) had a very good linear correlation with CO. The diurnal variation of Hg concentration was dramatic at the Penghu Islands, while it appeared as low as the North Hemisphere background mercury concentration at Mt. Lulin, indicating that they were not formed via the mechanism modes. This study thus proposed "scenario mercury" and "background mercury" for interpreting this interesting phenomenon.
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