Estimating the contribution of photochemical particle formation to ultrafine particle number averages in an urban atmosphere

Ma, Nan; Birmili, W.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.01.009

Cited by 64 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Power station plumes contain primary UFPs and excess secondary particle precursor substances H 2 SO 4 and ammonia. They are also consistent with the regional variability and temporal evolution of boundary layer UFP number concentrations and size distributions in urban and rural environments in Germany (Birmili et al, 2013;Ma and Birmili, 2015). A dominating role of three-dimensional transport processes on the distribution of aerosols a regional scale on has been observed also elsewhere in larger aerosol network studies (Demerjian and Mohnen, 2008).…”

Section: Summary and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Ultrafine particles over Germany – an aerial survey

Junkermann

Vogel²,

Bangert³

2016

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

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A B S T R A C T Ultrafine particles in the atmosphere may have important climate and health effects. As they are below visible size and not visible for remote sensing techniques, the majority of observations thus come from ground-based measurements. Some of those observations indicate elevated sources for ultrafine particles. Here we present for the first time airborne measurements of number concentration and size distributions of ultrafine particles along defined flight paths across Germany, allowing to derive background concentrations and to identify major single sources. A significant impact of fossil fuelÁrelated emissions on background and maximum concentrations was found. Maxima reaching up to 90 000 particles cm (3 were encountered in plumes of single large sources extending over more than 200 km. Modelling shows that about 10Á40 % of Germany were continuously affected by such plumes. Regional-scale transport and boundary layer dynamics were identified as major factors controlling spatial and temporal patterns of size and number distributions.

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Section: Summary and Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Ultrafine particles over Germany – an aerial survey

Junkermann

Vogel²,

Bangert³

2016

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

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“…It is recognised that it may be limited in terms of giving exhaustive consideration and quantification of each individual driver on pollutant concentration, particularly the complex influence of local street topography. The absence of summer measurements could mean that the influence of photochemical particle formation may be underestimated (Ma and Birmili, 2015). Overall, however, this study has demonstrated that careful experimental design and data interpretation of short-term mobile measurements can identify the important drivers governing different metrics of PM concentration, and which also support findings in literature that use more sophisticated long term measurements.…”

Section: Study Limitationssupporting

confidence: 79%

Identifying drivers for the intra-urban spatial variability of airborne particulate matter components and their interrelationships

Reis

Lin

et al. 2015

Atmospheric Environment

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The aim of this work was to compare the variability in an urban area of fine particles (PM2.5), ultrafine particles (UFP) and black carbon (BC) and to evaluate the relationship between each particle metric and potential factors (local traffic, street topography and synoptic meteorology) contributing to the variability. Concentrations of the three particle metrics were quantified using portable monitors through a combination of mobile and static measurements in the city of Edinburgh, UK. The spatial variability of UFP and BC was large, of similar magnitude and about 3 times higher than the spatial variability of PM0.5-2.5 (the PM size fraction actually quantified in this work). Highest inter-daily variability was observed for PM0.5-2.5, which was approximately 2 times higher than inter-daily variability of BC and UFP. Elevated concentrations of UFP and BC were observed along streets with high traffic volumes whereas PM0.5-2.5 showed less variation between streets and a footpath without road traffic. Both BC and UFP were significantly correlated with traffic counts, while no significant correlation between PM0.5-2.5 and traffic counts was observed. BC was significantly correlated with UFP, with significantly different regression slopes between working days and non-working days implying that the increased number of diesel powered heavy goods vehicles during working days contributed more to BC than to UFP. It is concluded that variations in BC and UFP concentrations were mainly determined by the nearby traffic count and varying background concentrations between days, while variation in PM0.5-2.5 concentration was mainly associated with regional sources. These findings imply the need for different policies for managing human exposure to these different particle components: control of much BC and UFP appears to be manageable at local scale by restricting traffic emissions; however, abatement of PM2.5 requires a more strategic approach, in cooperation with other regions and countries on emissions control to curb long-range transport of PM2.5 precursors

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“…Furthermore, Brines et al (2015) calculated that 22 % of the annual average UFP number concentration recorded at an urban background site of Barcelona originated from NPF. Ma and Birmili (2015) reported that the annual contribution of traffic on UFP number concentration was 7, 14 and 30 % at roadside, urban background and rural sites respectively, in and around Leipzig, Germany. On the other hand, traffic emissions 10 contributed 44-69 % to UFP concentrations in Barcelona (Pey et al, 2009;Dall'Osto et al, 2012, 65 % in London (Harrison et al, 2011;Beddows et al, 2015) and 69 % in Helsinki (Wegner et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tröstl et al (2016) reported experimental results on nucleation driven by oxidation of Volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and Kirkby et al (2016) reported pure biogenic nucleation. Globally, and 15 especially in urban areas, traffic emissions are a major source of UFP Ma and Birmili, 2015;Pey et al, 2008;Pey et al, 2009;Dall'Osto et al, 2012;Salma et al, 2014;Paasonen et al, 2016) and these arise from primary UFP exhaust emissions (Shi and Harrison, 1999;Shi et al, 2000;Charron and Harrison, 2003; Uhrner et al, 2012), condensation of semi-volatile phases vapor species that creates new UFP during dilution and cooling of engine exhaust emissions near the source (Charron and Harrison, 2003;Kittelson et al, 2006;Robinson et al, 2007). Since these are formed very close to the 20 source, most studies consider them as primary (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brines et al, 2015;Paasonen et al, 2016) or quasi-primary particles (Rönkkö et al, 2017). Other relevant UFP sources include industrial emissions (Keuken et al, 2015;El Haddad et al, 2013), city waste incineration (Buonanno and Morawska, 2015), shipping (Kecorius et al, 2016;Johnson et al, 2014), airports (Cheung et al, 2011;Hudda et al, 2014;Keuken et al, 2015) or even construction works .NPF events contribute also significantly to ambient UFP concentrations in urban environments (Woo et al, 2001; Alam et 25 al., 2003;Stanier et al, 2004;Wu et al, 2008;Costabile et al, 2009; Reche et al, 2011;Rimnácová et al, 2011;Salma et al, 2011;Salma et al, 2016;Harrison et al, 2011;Gómez-Moreno et al, 2011.;Wegner et al, 2012;von Bismarck-Osten et al, 2013;Dall'Osto et al, 2013;Betha et al, 2013; Cheung et al, 2011;Hussein et al, 2014;Liu et al, 2014;Salimi et al, 2014;Brines et al, 2014;Brines et al, 2015;Ma and Birmili, 2015;Minguillón et al, 2015;Hofman et al, 2016, Kontkanen et al, 2017. Common features enhancing urban NPF are high insolation, low relative humidity, availability of SO2 and 30 organic condensable vapors, and low condensation and coagulation sinks (Kulmala et al, 2004;Kulmala and Kerminen, 2008, Sipilä, et al, 2010, Salma et al, 2016.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vertical and horizontal distribution of regional new particle formation events in Madrid

Carnerero¹,

Pérez²,

Reche³

et al. 2018

Preprint

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Abstract. The vertical profile of new particle formation (NPF) events was studied by comparing the aerosol size number distributions measured aloft and at surface level in a suburban environment in Madrid, Spain using airborne instruments. The horizontal distribution and regional impact of the NPF events was investigated with data from three urban and suburban 25 stations in the Madrid metropolitan area. Intensive regional NPF episodes followed by particle growth were simultaneously recorded at three stations in and around Madrid, in a field campaign in July 2016. On some days a marked decline in particle size (shrinkage) was observed in the afternoon, associated with a change in air masses. Additionally, a few nocturnal nucleation mode bursts were observed in the urban stations, which could be related to aircraft emissions transported from the airport. Considering all simultaneous diurnal NPF events registered, growth rates were significantly lower at the urban 30 stations, ranging 2.0-3.9 nm h -1 , compared to the suburban station (2.9-10.0 nm h -1 ). Total concentration of 9.1-25 nm particles reached 2.8 x 10 4 cm -3 at the urban station and 1.7 x 10 4 cm -3 at the suburban station, the mean daily values being 3.7 x 10 4 cm -3 (2.2 x 10 4 cm -3 at the suburban station) during event days. The formation rates of 9-25 nm particles peaked around noon and recorded a median value of 2.0 cm -3 s -1 and 1.1 cm -3 s -1 at the urban and suburban stations, respectively.The condensation and coagulation sinks presented minimum values shortly before sunrise, increasing after dawn reaching 35 the maximum value at 14:00 UTC, with average daily mean values of 3.4 x 10 -3 s -1 (2.5 x 10 -3 s -1 at the suburban station) and 2.4 x 10 -5 s -1 , respectively, during event days. The vertical soundings demonstrated that ultrafine particles (UFP) are transported from surface levels to higher levels, thus newly-formed particles ascend from surface to the top of the mixing layer. The morning soundings revealed the presence of a residual layer in the upper levels in which aged particles (nucleated and grown on previous days) prevail. The particles in this layer also grow in size, with growth rates significantly smaller 40 than those inside the mixed layer. Under conditions with strong enough convection, the soundings revealed homogeneous Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10. 5194/acp-2018-173 Manuscript under review for journal Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discussion started: 27 March 2018 c Author(s) 2018. CC BY 4.0 License.2 number size distributions and growth rates at all altitudes, which follow the same evolution in the other stations considered in this study. This indicates that NPF occurs quasi-homogenously in an area spanning at least 17 km horizontally. The NPF events extend over the full vertical extension of the mixed layer reaching as high as 3000 m. This can have consequences in the radiative balance of the atmosphere and affect the climate. Results also evidenced that total particle concentration in and around Madrid in...

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Estimating the contribution of photochemical particle formation to ultrafine particle number averages in an urban atmosphere

Cited by 64 publications

References 48 publications

Ultrafine particles over Germany – an aerial survey

Ultrafine particles over Germany – an aerial survey

Identifying drivers for the intra-urban spatial variability of airborne particulate matter components and their interrelationships

Vertical and horizontal distribution of regional new particle formation events in Madrid

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