Variations in tropospheric submicron particle size distributions across the European continent 2008–2009

Cluster~analysis of particle number size distributions from~background sites across Europe~is presented. This generated a total of nine clusters of particle size distributions which could be further combined into two main groups, namely: a south-to-north category (four clusters) and a west-to-east category (five clusters). The first group was identified as most frequently being detected inside and around northern Germany and neighbouring countries, showing clear evidence of local afternoon nucleation and growth events that could be linked to movement of air masses from south to north arriving ultimately at the Arctic contributing to Arctic haze.~The second group of particle size spectra proved to have narrower size distributions and collectively showed a dependence of modal diameter upon the longitude of the site (west to east) at which they were most frequently detected.~These clusters indicated regional nucleation (at the coastal sites) growing to larger modes further inland. The apparent growth rate of the modal diameter was around 0.6–0.9 nm h−1. Four specific air mass back-trajectories were successively taken as case studies to examine in real time the evolution of aerosol size distributions across Europe. ~While aerosol growth processes can be observed as aerosol traverses Europe, the processes are often obscured by the addition of aerosol by emissions en route. This study revealed that some of the 24 stations exhibit more complex behaviour than others, especially when impacted by local sources or a variety of different air masses. Overall, the aerosol size distribution clustering analysis greatly simplifies the complex data set and allows a description of aerosol aging processes, which reflects the longer-term average development of particle number size distributions as air masses advect across Europe.

Schlagwörter

Fachgebiet (DDC)

550 - Geowissenschaften

Projekt

Veranstaltung

Startdatum der Ausstellung

Enddatum der Ausstellung

Startdatum der Konferenz

Enddatum der Konferenz

Datum der letzten Prüfung

ISBN

ISSN

1680-7324
1680-7316

Sprache

Englisch

Während FHNW Zugehörigkeit erstellt

Nein

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Begutachtung

Peer-Review der ganzen Publikation

Open Access-Status

Gold

Lizenz

Zitation

BEDDOWS, David, Manuel DALL’OSTO, Roy HARRISON, Markku KULMALA, Ari ASMI, Alfred WIEDENSOHLER, Paolo LAJ, Ann Mari FJAERAA, Karine SELLEGRI, Wolfram BIRMILI, Nicolas BUKOWIECKI, Ernest WEINGARTNER, Urs BALTENSPERGER, Vladimir ZDIMAL, Nadezda ZIKOVA, Jean-Philippe PUTAUD, Angela MARINONI, Peter TUNVED, Hans-Christen HANSSON, Markus FIEBIG, Niku KIVEKÄS, Erik SWIETLICKI, Heikki LIHAVAINEN, Eija ASMI, Vidmantas ULEVICIUS, P. P. AALTO, Nikolaos MIHALOPOULOS, Nikos KALIVITIS, Ivo KALAPOV, Gyula KISS, Gerrit DE LEEUW, Bas HENZING, Colin O’DOWD, S. G. JENNINGS, Harald FLENTJE, Frank MEINHARDT, Ludwig RIES, Hugo DENIER VAN DER GON und Antoon VISSCHEDIJK, 2014. Variations in tropospheric submicron particle size distributions across the European continent 2008–2009. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 2014. Bd. 14, Nr. 8, S. 4327–4348. DOI 10.5194/acp-14-4327-2014. Verfügbar unter: https://doi.org/10.26041/fhnw-8158

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