Measurements of the physical properties of particles in the urban atmosphere

Abstract

Measurements of the physical properties of particles in the atmosphere of a UK urban area have been made, including particle number count by condensation nucleus counters with different lower particle size cut-offs; particle size distributions using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer; total particle Fuchs surface area using an epiphaniometer and particle mass using Tapered Element Oscillating Micro-balance (TEOM) instruments with size selective (PM10 and PM2.5) inlets. Mean particle number counts at three sites range from 2.86 x 104 to 9.60 x 104 cm-3. A traffic-influenced location showed a substantially higher ratio of particle number to PM10 mass than a nearby background location despite being some 70 m from the roadway. Operating two condensation nucleus counters in tandem to determine particles in the 3-7 nm size range by difference showed significant numbers of particles in this range, apparently related to homogeneous nucleation processes. Measurements with the Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer showed a clear difference between roadside size distributions and those at a nearby background location with an additional mode in the roadside samples below 10 nm diameter. Particle number counts were found to show a significant linear correlation with PM10 mass (r2=0.44; n=44 for 24 h data at an urban background location), although during one period of high pollution a curvilinear relationship was found. Measurements of the diurnal variation in PM10 mass, particle number count and Fuchs surface area show the same general pattern of behaviour of the three variables, explicable in terms of vehicle emission source strength and atmospheric dispersion, although the surface area growth was out of phase with the particle number and mass. It appears that particle number gives the clearest indication of recent road traffic emissions.