Monitoring of sources and atmospheric processes controlling air quality in an urban Mediterranean environment |
| |
| Authors: | Jorge Pey Andrés Alastuey Xavier Querol Sergio Rodríguez |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research, CSIC, Lluis Solé i Sabarís s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain;2. Izaña Atmospheric Research Centre, AEMET Joint Research Unit to CSIC “Studies on Atmospheric Pollution”, La Marina 20, planta 6, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, E38071 Canary Islands, Spain;1. Spectroscopy Department, Physics Division, National Research Center, El Behooth Str., 12622 Dokki, Cairo, Egypt;2. Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 888, 21974 Taif, Saudi Arabia;3. Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil;4. Instituto Nacional de Ciência e Tecnologia do CNPq – INCT de Energia e Ambiente, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil;1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA;2. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patras, Greece;1. Department of Science and High Technology, University of Insubria, Como, Italy;2. Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine Research Centre, University of Insubria, Varese, Italy;1. Department of Physics, P.O. Box 48, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland;2. Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, 04303 Leipzig, Germany;3. School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George St., Brisbane 4001, Australia;4. Department of Environmental Science, Aarhus University, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark;5. Institute of Nuclear Technology and Radiation Protection, N.C.S.R. Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Attiki, Greece;6. Environment and Health Administration, City of Stockholm, 104 20 Stockholm, Sweden;7. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, P.O. Box 68, FI-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland;8. Department of Physics, The University of Jordan, Amman 11942, Jordan;1. Regional Centre for Environment and Health, ARPA Emilia-Romagna, Via Begarelli, 13, 41121 Modena, Italy;2. Regional Centre for Urban Areas, ARPA Emilia-Romagna, Via Rocchi, 19, 40138 Bologna, Italy;3. Provincial District of Ferrara, ARPA Emilia-Romagna, Via Bologna 534, 44122 Ferrara, Italy;4. Division of Environmental Health and Risk Management, School of Geography, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, United Kingdom;1. Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, Basel, Switzerland;2. University of Basel, Switzerland;3. Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL), Barcelona, Spain;4. Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain;5. CIBER Epidemiologia y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Barcelona, Spain;6. Inserm and University J. Fourier Grenoble, Team of Environmental Epidemiology Applied to Reproduction and Respiratory Health, Grenoble, France;7. Centre de Recherche du Centre Hospitalier de l''Université de Montréal (CRCHUM), Montreal, Canada;8. Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, India |
| |
| Abstract: | Different monitoring parameters (PM mass concentrations, number–size distribution, black carbon, gaseous pollutants, and chemical composition, among others) are currently used in air quality studies. Urban aerosols are the result of several sources and atmospheric processes, which suggests that a single monitoring technique is insufficient to quantitatively evaluate all of them.This study assesses the suitability of a number of monitoring techniques (PM mass concentrations, number and size distribution of ultra-fine particles, levels of gaseous pollutants, and a complete chemical characterization of PM10 and PM2.5) by examining the response of those techniques to the different emission sources and/or atmospheric processes affecting an urban Mediterranean area (Barcelona, NE Spain).The results of this work reveal that the PM mass, the number concentration and the chemical composition give different, but complementary, information. Whereas the mineral matter, a key atmospheric aerosol component across the Mediterranean, is not properly quantitatively assessed by measuring sub-micrometric particles, the monitoring of the number concentration is indispensable to interpret the origin of specific aerosol episodes. Furthermore, the chemical composition yields very relevant information to deduce the causes of specific pollution episodes.The number concentration of ultra-fine particles in urban areas is strongly dependent upon vehicle exhaust emissions, which may cause adverse health impacts. Moreover, urban Mediterranean environments are favourable to produce nucleation-mode particles (<20 nm) with photochemical origin. In those cases, these particles are expected to be of high solubility and consequently their toxicity may differ from that of traffic-generated ultra-fine particles. Thus, the use of a single monitoring parameter to evaluate the health effects seems to be not enough. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
