Impact of rain precipitation on urban atmospheric particle matter measured at three locations in france between 2013 and 2019

Abstract

As atmospheric particle matter (PM) pollution has been proven to be a public health risk, we investigated how PM concentrations of various particle diameters may be impacted by precipitation. Repeated measures over time of urban PM concentrations for particles of 0.2–50 µm in diameter were compared with precipitation data from Météo-France weather stations in Paris, Angers and Palaiseau from 2013 to 2019. A significant negative correlation, using Kendall’s rank correlation, was found between the amount of precipitation and concentrations of particles >3 µm. Distribution comparative analysis (Dunn’s test) of 154 events of 1 mm or more of rain demonstrated a decrease in concentrations for particles from 10 to 50 µm in diameter. Additionally, granulometric analysis of a typical heavy rain event showed a 10-fold decrease in concentrations of particles 10 to 30 µm in diameter one hour after rain compared with one hour before. We were able to show that measured concentrations of particles between 10 and 50 µm in diameter diminish when it rains, with a lasting effect of approximately 10–15 h.