Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 6 12 2006 10.5194/acp-6-4275-2006 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/4275/2006/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/4275/2006/acp-6-4275-2006.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/6/4275/2006/acp-6-4275-2006.pdf 4275 4286 2006-09-22 Correlation between traffic density and particle size distribution in a street canyon and the dependence on wind direction J. Voigtländer jensv@tropos.de T. Tuch W. Birmili A. Wiedensohler Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany UFZ Center for Environmental Research, Department of Human Exposure Research and Epidemiology, Leipzig, Germany Combustion of fossil fuel in gasoline and diesel powered vehicles is a major source of aerosol particles in a city. In a street canyon, the number concentration of particles smaller than 300 nm in diameter, which can be inhaled and cause serious health effects, is dominated by particles originating from this source. In this study we measured both, particle number size distribution and traffic density continuously in a characteristic street canyon in Germany for a time period of 6 months. The street canyon with multistory buildings and 4 traffic lanes is very typical for larger cities. Thus, the measurements also are representative for many other street canyons in Europe. In contrast to previous studies, we measured and analyzed the particle number size distribution with high size resolution using a Twin Differential Mobility Analyzer (TDMPS). The measured size range was from 3 to 800 nm, separated into 40 size channels. Correlation coefficients between particle number concentration for integrated size ranges and traffic counts of 0.5 were determined. Correlations were also calculated for each of the 40 size channels of the DMPS system, respectively. We found a maximum of the correlation coefficients for nucleation mode particles in the size range between 10 and 20 nm in diameter. 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