Observations of new particle formation, modal growth rates, and direct emissions of sub-10 nm particles in an urban environment

Ultrafine particles with diameters less than 100 nm suspended in the air are a topic of interest in air quality and climate sciences. Sub-10 nm particles are of additional interest due to their health effects and contribution to particle growth processes. Ambient measurements were carried out at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC between April to June 2019 and November 2019 to May 2020 to investigate the temporal variability of size distribution and number concentration of ultrafine particles. A mobile lab was deployed between March and May 2020 to characterize the spatial distribution of sub-10 nm particle number concentration. New particle formation and growth events were observed regularly. Also observed were direct emissions of sub-10 nm particles. Analysis against meteorological variables, gas-phase species, and particle concentrations show that the sub-10nm particles dominated number concentration during periods of low planetary boundary layer height, low solar radiation, and northeast winds. The spatial patterns observed during mobile deployments suggest that multiple temporally stable and spatially confined point sources of sub-10 nm particles are present within the city. These sources likely include the campus utility plants and the Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Additionally, the timing of data collection allowed for investigation of variations in the urban aerosol number size distribution due to reduced economic activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Particle number size distribution and new particle formation: new characteristics during the special pollution control period in Beijing

New particle formation is a key process in shaping the size distribution of aerosols in the atmosphere. We present here the measurement results of number and size distribution of aerosol particles (10-10000 nm in diameter) obtained in the summer of 2008, at a suburban site in Beijing, China. We firstly reported the pollution level, particle number size distribution, diurnal variation of the particle number size distribution and then introduced the characteristics of the particle formation processes. The results showed that the number concentration of ultrafine particles was much lower than the values measured in other urban or suburban areas in previous studies. Sharp increases of ultrafine particle count were frequently observed at noon. An examination of the diurnal pattern suggested that the burst of ultrafine particles was mainly due to new particle formation promoted by photochemical processes. In addition, high relative humidity was a key factor driving the growth of the particles in the afternoon. During the 2-month observations, new particle formation from homogeneous nucleation was observed for 42.7% of the study period. The average growth rate of newly formed particles was 3.2 nm/hr, and varied from 1.2 to 8.0 nm/hr. The required concentration of condensable vapor was 4.4 x 10(7) cm(-3), and its source rate was 1.2 x 106 cm(-3) sec(-1). Further calculation on the source rate of sulphuric acid vapor indicated that the average participation of sulphuric acid to particle growth rates was 28.7%.

Factors influencing particle number concentrations, size distributions and modal parameters at a roof-level and roadside site in Leicester, UK

Measurements of urban particle number concentrations and size distributions in the range 5-1000 nm were taken at elevated (roof-level) and roadside sampling sites on Narborough Road in Leicester, UK, along with simultaneous measurements of traffic, NO(x), CO and 1,3-butadiene concentrations and meteorological parameters. A fitting program was used to determine the characteristics of up to five modal groups present in the particle size distributions. All particle modal concentrations peaked during the morning and evening rush hours. Additional events associated with the smallest mode, that were not observed to be connected to primary emissions, were also present suggesting that this mode consisted of newly formed secondary particles. These events included peaks in concentration which coincided with peaks in solar radiation, and lower concentrations of the larger modes. Investigation into the relationships between traffic flow and occupancy indicated three flow regimes; free-flow, unstable and congested. During free-flow conditions, positive linear relationships existed between traffic flow and particle modal number concentrations. However, during unstable and congested periods, this relationship was shown to break-down. Similar trends were observed for concentrations of the gas phase pollutants NO(x), CO and 1,3-butadiene. Strong linear relationships existed between NO(x), CO, 1,3-butadiene concentrations, nucleation and Aitken mode concentrations at both sampling locations, indicating a local traffic related emission source. At the roadside, both nucleation and Aitken mode are best represented by a decreasing exponential function with wind speed, whereas at the roof-level this relationship only occurred for Aitken mode particles. The differing relationships at the two sampling locations are most likely due to a combination of meteorological factors and distance from the local emission source.