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New considerations for PM, black carbon and particle number concentration for air quality monitoring across different European cities
Reche Andúgar, Cristina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Querol Carceller, Xavier (Institut de Diagnosi Ambiental i Estudis de l'Aigua)
Alastuey, Andrés (Institut de Diagnosi Ambiental i Estudis de l'Aigua)
Viana Rodríguez, María del Mar (Institut de Diagnosi Ambiental i Estudis de l'Aigua)
Pey, J. (Institut de Diagnosi Ambiental i Estudis de l'Aigua)
Moreno Pérez, Teresa (Institut de Diagnosi Ambiental i Estudis de l'Aigua)
Rodríguez, S. (Centro de Investigación Atmosférica de Izaña)
González, Y. (Centro de Investigación Atmosférica de Izaña)
Fernández Camacho, R. (Universidad de Huelva. Unidad "Contaminación Atmosférica")
Sánchez de la Campa, A. M. (Universidad de Huelva. Unidad "Contaminación Atmosférica")
De la Rosa, J. (Universidad de Huelva. Unidad "Contaminación Atmosférica")
Dall'Osto, M. (Institut de Diagnosi Ambiental i Estudis de l'Aigua)
Prévôt, A. S. H. (Paul Scherrer Institut. Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry)
Hueglin, C. (Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt. Labor für Luftverschmutzung und Umwelttechnologie)
Harrison, R. M. (University of Birmingham. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences)
Quincey, P. (National Physical Laboratory (Great Britain). Division of Quality of Life. Analytical Science Team)

Date: 2011
Abstract: In many large cities of Europe standard air quality limit values of particulate matter (PM) are exceeded. Emissions from road traffic and biomass burning are frequently reported to be the major causes. As a consequence of these exceedances a large number of air quality plans, most of them focusing on traffic emissions reductions, have been implemented in the last decade. In spite of this implementation, a number of cities did not record a decrease of PM levels. Thus, is the efficiency of air quality plans overestimated? Do the road traffic emissions contribute less than expected to ambient air PM levels in urban areas? Or do we need a more specific metric to evaluate the impact of the above emissions on the levels of urban aerosols? This study shows the results of the interpretation of the variability of levels of PM, Black Carbon (BC), aerosol number concentration (N) and a number of gaseous pollutants in seven selected urban areas covering road traffic, urban background, urban-industrial, and urban-shipping environments from southern, central and northern Europe. The results showed that variations of PM and N levels do not always reflect the variation of the impact of road traffic emissions on urban aerosols. However, BC levels vary proportionally with those of traffic related gaseous pollutants, such as CO, NO₂ and NO. Due to this high correlation, one may suppose that monitoring the levels of these gaseous pollutants would be enough to extrapolate exposure to traffic-derived BC levels. However, the BC/CO, BC/NO₂ and BC/NO ratios vary widely among the cities studied, as a function of distance to traffic emissions, vehicle fleet composition and the influence of other emission sources such as biomass burning. Thus, levels of BC should be measured at air quality monitoring sites. During morning traffic rush hours, a narrow variation in the N/BC ratio was evidenced, but a wide variation of this ratio was determined for the noon period. Although in central and northern Europe N and BC levels tend to vary simultaneously, not only during the traffic rush hours but also during the whole day, in urban background stations in southern Europe maximum N levels coinciding with minimum BC levels are recorded at midday in all seasons. These N maxima recorded in southern European urban background environments are attributed to midday nucleation episodes occurring when gaseous pollutants are diluted and maximum insolation and O₃ levels occur. The occurrence of SO₂ peaks may also contribute to the occurrence of midday nucleation bursts in specific industrial or shipping-influenced areas, although at several central European sites similar levels of SO₂ are recorded without yielding nucleation episodes. Accordingly, it is clearly evidenced that N variability in different European urban environments is not equally influenced by the same emission sources and atmospheric processes. We conclude that N variability does not always reflect the impact of road traffic on air quality, whereas BC is a more consistent tracer of such an influence. However, N should be measured since ultrafine particles (<100 nm) may have large impacts on human health. The combination of PM₁₀ and BC monitoring in urban areas potentially constitutes a useful approach for air quality monitoring. BC is mostly governed by vehicle exhaust emissions, while PM₁₀ concentrations at these sites are also governed by non-exhaust particulate emissions resuspended by traffic, by midday atmospheric dilution and by other nontraffic emissions.
Grants: European Commission 254773
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CGL2010-19464/CLI
Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación CGL2007-30502-E/CLI
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad CSD2007-00067
Rights: Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. Creative Commons
Language: Anglès
Document: Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject: Air quality ; Cities ; Europe ; Particulate matter ; PM ; Black carbon ; BC
Published in: Atmospheric chemistry and physics, Vol. 11 No. 13 (July 2011) , p. 6207-6227, ISSN 1680-7324

DOI: 10.5194/acp-11-6207-2011


21 p, 1.3 MB

The record appears in these collections:
Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles

 Record created 2015-03-11, last modified 2023-12-12



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