Ice nucleation, shape, and composition of aerosol particles in one of the most polluted cities in the world: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Hasenkopf, C. A.; Veghte, Daniel P.; Schill, G. P.; Lodoysamba, Sereeter; Freedman, Miriam Arak; Tolbert, Margaret A.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2016.05.037

Cited by 26 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 25 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Another study conducted in Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, a city suffering from severe air pollution, showed a low ice activity towards heterogeneous ice nucleation when the sulphur content of particles was highest (Hasenkopf et al, 2016). It is interesting to note that we observe the opposite in our study; i.e., the increase of PM 2.5 mass concentration and percentage of SNA in PM 2.5 during haze periods also seem to have no negative impact on INP concentrations.…”

Section: Particle Number Concentrationscontrasting

confidence: 32%

Ice-nucleating particle concentrations unaffected by urban air pollution in Beijing, China

Chen

Augustin-Bauditz

et al. 2018

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Exceedingly high levels of PM 2.5 with complex chemical composition occur frequently in China. It has been speculated whether anthropogenic PM 2.5 may significantly contribute to ice-nucleating particles (INP). However, few studies have focused on the ice-nucleating properties of urban particles. In this work, two ice-nucleating droplet arrays have been used to determine the atmospheric number concentration of INP (N INP ) in the range from −6 to −25 • C in Beijing. No correlations between N INP and either PM 2.5 or black carbon mass concentrations were found, although both varied by more than a factor of 30 during the sampling period. Similarly, there were no correlations between N INP and either total particle number concentration or number concentrations for particles with diameters > 500 nm. Furthermore, there was no clear difference between day and night samples. All these results indicate that Beijing air pollution did not increase or decrease INP concentrations in the examined temperature range above values observed in nonurban areas; hence, the background INP concentrations might not be anthropogenically influenced as far as urban air pollution is concerned, at least in the examined temperature range.

show abstract

Section: Particle Number Concentrationscontrasting

confidence: 32%

Ice-nucleating particle concentrations unaffected by urban air pollution in Beijing, China

Chen

Augustin-Bauditz

et al. 2018

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In another short-term seasonal sampling campaign in 2008 [6], PM 10 analyzed for chemical speciation was significantly higher in carbon (elemental and organic) and sulfate in the winter, compared to the summer. Hasenkopf et al [7] imaged particles from a site located 600 m from the Ger district from June 2012 to March 2013 using transmission electron microscopy and ice nucleation coupled with microscopy to determine their shape (spherical, fractal, irregular) and type (mineral dust, soot, sulfate/organic). They found the collected samples primarily consisted of spherical particles with sulfate/organic composition and that, in winter months, when the concentrations of PM increased, so did their sulfur content.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Multi-Angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer Aerosol Mixture Properties for Air Quality Assessment in Mongolia

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ulaanbaatar (UB), the capital city of Mongolia, has extremely poor wintertime air quality with fine particulate matter concentrations frequently exceeding 500 μg/m3, over 20 times the daily maximum guideline set by the World Health Organization. Intensive use of sulfur-rich coal for heating and cooking coupled with an atmospheric inversion amplified by the mid-continental Siberian anticyclone drive these high levels of air pollution. Ground-based air quality monitoring in Mongolia is sparse, making use of satellite observations of aerosol optical depth (AOD) instrumental for characterizing air pollution in the region. We harnessed data from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) Version 23 (V23) aerosol product, which provides total column AOD and component-particle optical properties for 74 different aerosol mixtures at 4.4 km spatial resolution globally. To test the performance of the V23 product over Mongolia, we compared values of MISR AOD with spatially and temporally matched AOD from the Dalanzadgad AERONET site and find good agreement (correlation r = 0.845, and root-mean-square deviation RMSD = 0.071). Over UB, exploratory principal component analysis indicates that the 74 MISR AOD mixture profiles consisted primarily of small, spherical, non-absorbing aerosols in the wintertime, and contributions from medium and large dust particles in the summertime. Comparing several machine learning methods for relating the 74 MISR mixtures to ground-level pollutants, including particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters smaller than 2.5 μm ( PM 2.5 ) and 10 μm ( PM 10 ), as well as sulfur dioxide ( SO 2 ), a proxy for sulfate particles, we find that Support Vector Machine regression consistently has the highest predictive performance with median test R 2 for PM 2.5 , PM 10 , and SO 2 equal to 0.461, 0.063, and 0.508, respectively. These results indicate that the high-dimensional MISR AOD mixture set can provide reliable predictions of air pollution and can distinguish dominant particle types in the UB region.

show abstract

“…In highly polluted localities (i.e. ger areas), concentrations on some winter days exceed 1,000 μg•m-3 (Davy et al 2011;Hasenkopf et al 2016;Cavanaugh 2017), which is significantly above Mongolian and international air quality standards (table 1). A particular threat for public health is caused by the enrichment of the particles with toxic elements such as As, Cu, Pb and Zn (Nishikawa et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Pollution Reduction Potential By Implementing Electrostatic Dust Precipitators On Mongolian Small-Scale Stoves (A Pilot Study In Ulaanbaatar)

Karthe¹,

Hafer

Battulga

et al. 2020

GES

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatarexperiences some of the world’s worst air pollution during the winter months, most of it being caused by small coal- and wood-fired stoves which are used for heating and cooking purposes in peri-urban parts of the city. A recent pilot study in Songinokhairkhan District of Ulaanbaatar City evaluated the feasibility of electrostatic dust precipitators (ESP) for reducing particulate matter (PM) emissions from small stoves. This paper focuses on the pollution reduction potentials that would result from a large-scale implementation of ESPs. Using a locally developed low- cost ESP system (which is currently in the process of further improvement), reduction rates ranging between 10 to 50% of the PM emissions (depending on the fuel and combustion conditions) could be achieved. Fitting all or at least a major fraction of the small stoves with such ESPs could reduce PM emissions by an order of several thousand tons per heating season for the whole city. The avoided particle emissions would simultaneously prevent atmospheric pollution by various trace metals and metalloids including As, Cd, Pb and Zn, which are known to be major soil and water pollutants locally, and several other toxic substances. However, this also means that safe disposal strategies must be developed for the fly ash precipitated during ESP operation.

show abstract

Ice nucleation, shape, and composition of aerosol particles in one of the most polluted cities in the world: Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Cited by 26 publications

References 25 publications

Ice-nucleating particle concentrations unaffected by urban air pollution in Beijing, China

Ice-nucleating particle concentrations unaffected by urban air pollution in Beijing, China

Using Multi-Angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer Aerosol Mixture Properties for Air Quality Assessment in Mongolia

Pollution Reduction Potential By Implementing Electrostatic Dust Precipitators On Mongolian Small-Scale Stoves (A Pilot Study In Ulaanbaatar)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About