References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-12-10693-2012

Urban aerosol size distributions over the Mediterranean city of Barcelona, NE Spain

Dall'Osto

¹ Beddows

D.C.S.

² Pey

¹ Rodriguez

³ ⁴ Alastuey

¹ Harrison

Roy M.

² ⁵ Querol

Institute for Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDǼA-CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

National Centre for Atmospheric Science, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT, UK

University of Huelva (Spain) at the Izana Atmospheric Observatory, INM-CSIC, La Marina 20, 6a planta, 38071, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

currently at: Izaña Atmospheric Research Centre, AEMET, Joint Research Unit to CSIC "Studies on Atmospheric Pollution", La Marina 20, Planta 6, 38071 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

also at: Centre of Excellence in Environmental Studies, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah (21589), Saudi Arabia

16 11 2012

12 22 10693 10707

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/10693/2012/acp-12-10693-2012.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/10693/2012/acp-12-10693-2012.pdf

Differential mobility particle sizer (DMPS) aerosol concentrations (N<sub>13-800</sub>) were collected over a one-year-period (2004) at an urban background site in Barcelona, North-Eastern Spain. Quantitative contributions to particle number concentrations of the nucleation (33–39%), Aitken (39–49%) and accumulation mode (18–22%) were estimated. We examined the source and time variability of atmospheric aerosol particles by using both K-means clustering and Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis. Performing clustering analysis on hourly size distributions, nine K-means DMPS clusters were identified and, by directional association, diurnal variation and relationship to meteorological and pollution variables, four typical aerosol size distribution scenarios were identified: traffic (69% of the time), dilution (15% of the time), summer background conditions (4% of the time) and regional pollution (12% of the time). According to the results of PMF, vehicle exhausts are estimated to contribute at least to 62–66% of the total particle number concentration, with a slightly higher proportion distributed towards the nucleation mode (34%) relative to the Aitken mode (28–32%). Photochemically induced nucleation particles make only a small contribution to the total particle number concentration (2–3% of the total), although only particles larger than 13 nm were considered in this study. Overall the combination of the two statistical methods is successful at separating components and quantifying relative contributions to the particle number population.

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