Particle size distribution of organic primary and secondary aerosol constituents in urban, background marine, and forest atmosphere

Abstract

[1] Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), n-alkanes, n-alkanals, n-alkanols, saturated and unsaturated carboxylic acids, a, w-dicarboxylic acids, and carbonyl and carboxylic photooxidation products of monoteprenes were determined in particle-sized aerosols of urban (Heraclion, Island of Crete, Greece), background marine (Island of Crete, Greece), and forest (Northern Greece and Portugal) atmospheres. The n-alkanes were mostly associated with fine particles in the urban and forest aerosol, and their mass mean aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) calculated over the whole size range (total MMAD) was 0.45 mm and 0.63 mm, respectively. In the background marine aerosol, nalkanes were more evenly distributed, and their MMAD was 2.00 mm, because of physical changes occurring during their long-range transport. Similar observations have been done for PAHs and nalkanals. Conversely, the most biogenic compound class, namely n-alkanols, were evenly associated in the urban, background marine, and forest aerosol, between fine and coarse particles, and their corresponding total MMAD was 2.45, 2.69, and 1.67 mm, respectively. The total MMAD of n-alkanoic acids was 0.71, 0.62, and 0.91 mm in the urban, background marine, and forest aerosol, respectively. Several compounds associated with photochemical reactions in the atmosphere were detected in urban marine and forests aerosol in the fine and ultrafine fraction, showing the low total MMAD (0.28 -0.77 mm) in all aerosol types.

Size-distributions of <i>n</i>-alkanes, PAHs and hopanes and their sources in the urban, mountain and marine atmospheres over East Asia

“…Detailed differences in their size distributions among the three types of samples are further discussed below. .0 µm b Plant wax n-alkanes: calculated as the excess odd homologues-adjacent even homologues average and the difference from the total nalkanes is the fossil fuel-derived amount (Simoneit et al, 1991(Simoneit et al, , 2004b c WNA %: wax n-alkanes percentage, calculated as Cn−0.5(C n−1 +C n+1 )/ n-alkanes (Simoneit et al, 1991;Kavouras and Stephanou, 2002) d CPI, carbon preference index, CPI 1 = C 19 −C 35 / C 18 −C 34 e (Grimmer et al, 1983) f (Ohura et al, 2004) g (Rogge et al, 1993a) h (Oros and Simoneit, 2000). …”

Acidic reaction products of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes in atmospheric fine particles in a boreal forest

“…Some studies have focused on the concentrations of the reaction products of α-and β-pinene (pinonic and pinic acids) in real atmospheres (Kavouras and Stephanou, 2002;Kourtchev et al, 2008Kourtchev et al, , 2009Zhang et al, 2010;Cheng et al, 2011;Kristensen and Glasius, 2011), but very little information is available on the concentrations of other terpenoic acids, mainly due to the lack of authentic standards. In some studies, the concentrations of other terpenoic acids were estimated by indirect calibration methods (GomezGonzalez et al, 2012;Fu et al, 2009;Warnke et al, 2006).…”

The Finokalia Aerosol Measurement Experiment – 2008 (FAME-08): an overview

“…Few attempts have been made to characterize the PM size distribution away from the urban centers (Lazaridis et al, 2008;Eleftheriadis et al, 2006;Kalivitis et al, 2008) and even fewer to link composition with size (Kavouras and Stephanou, 2002;Koulouri et al, 2008). Particle formation has been investigated but without any instrumentation to monitor particles below 10 nm (Kalivitis et al, 2008).…”