Characterization of submicron aerosols in the urban outflow of the central Pearl River Delta region of China

Abstract

Submicron aerosol particles (with aerodynamic diameters less than 1 μm, PM₁) were sampled and measured in Heshan, an urban outflow site of Guangzhou megacity in Pearl River Delta in South China, using an Aerodyne High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) in November 2010 during 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games. The mean PM₁ mass concentration measured was 47.9±17.0 μg·m^-3 during the campaign, with organic aerosol (OA) and sulfate being the two dominant species, accounting for 36.3% and 20.9% of the total mass, respectively, followed by black carbon (17.1%, measured by an aethalometer), nitrate (12.9%), ammonium (9.6%) and chloride (3.1%). The average size distributions of the species (except black carbon) were dominated by an accumulation mode peaking at ~550 nm. Calculations based on high-resolution organic mass spectrum showed that, C, H, O and N on average contributed 58.1%, 7.3%, 30.7%, and 3.9% to the total organic mass, respectively. The average ratio of organic mass over organic carbon mass (OM/OC) was 1.73±0.08. Four components of OA were identified by the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis, including a hydrocarbon-like (HOA), a biomass burning (BBOA) and two oxygenated (SV-OOA and LV-OOA) organic aerosol components, which on average accounted for 18.0%, 14.3%, 28.8% and 38.9% of the total organic mass, respectively.

Keywords

organic aerosol / high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) / positive matrix factorization

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21177001), the Open Project from Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring and Pollution Control of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology (Grant No. KHK1104) and the Innovation Platform for Superiority Subject of Environmental Science and Engineering of Jiangsu Province.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg