Dispersion and concentration of PM10 particles in a Caribbean coastal city

Abstract

In this study, the concentrations of marine aerosols estimated with the model CALPUFF (a multi-layer, multi-species, non-steady-state puff dispersion) were compared with the concentrations of PM10 monitored near the coast with minimum volume gravimetric equipment. It was found that the contribution of marine aerosols to the mass of PM10 can be significant, reaching between 20% and 27%. Concentrations between 5 and 15 g/m 3 were estimated on streets that are less than 100 meters from the beach. The maximum concentrations were found at the sampling point located offshore. The correlation was strong and positive at this same point (r 2 = 0.65). In the dispersion analysis, the impact of marine aerosols was observed more than 20 km from the beach in the direction of the wind, with levels between 1.65 g/m 3 y 15.02 g/m 3 . In the monitoring with the gravimetric equipment, a maximum concentration of PM10 of 77.98 g/m 3 and a minimum concentration of 2.82 g/m 3 was obtained. The results show that CALPUFF provides reasonable predictions of long-term marine pollutant deposition patterns.