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Optical properties and chemical apportionment of summertime PM2.5 in the suburb of Nanjing

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Abstract

A field measurement of aerosol optical properties and chemical composition was carried out from August 25, 2012 to September 6, 2012 in Nanjing, China. A three-wavelength Photo-Acoustic Soot Spectrometer (PASS-3) was used to measure aerosol scattering and absorption coefficient (B sca and B abs ) with the wavelength dependent (405, 532, 781 nm). Samples were also collected by a Particle into Liquid Sampler (PILS) with a time resolution of 1 hour and water soluble chemical composition was analyzed by ion chromatography (IC). The hourly average B sca were 239.9 ± 115.3, 185.9 ± 99.3 and 93.8 ± 59.8 Mm−1 while the average B abs were 33.5 ± 21.8, 23.9 ± 15.7 and 16.7 ± 11.7 Mm−1 for 405, 532 and 781 nm. The air mass from Shandong province to Northwest of Nanjing (SN) brought rich chemical composition which can enhance aerosol optical properties. The largest B sca (~389.9, 321.9, 180.5 Mm−1), B abs (~59.7, 43.0, 31.0 Mm−1), ω532 (~0.89) and lowest visibility (~3.2Km), Å sca (405/781) (~1.19) were observed during SN period. The mass concentrations of organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and water soluble inorganic ions (NH4 +, K+, NO3 −, and SO4 2−) also continued to increase. However, aerosol optical properties and chemical composition kept stable for the episode with the air mass from Oceanic Regions (OR). Ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4), ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), organic mass (OM), elemental carbon (EC), fine soil (FS) and sea salt (SS) contributed 49.1, 4.0, 31.6, 9.3, 5.9, and 0.1 % to the total extinction coefficient in summer. (NH4)2SO4, OM and EC were dominant chemical components and the total contribution of them reached to 90 % of the dry aerosol extinction. The proportion of (NH4)2SO4 increased whereas OM and EC showed a decrease during SN period. Our study indicated that the summertime aerosol pollution at the northern suburb of Nanjing was mainly attributed to agricultural biomass burning and secondary aerosol formation. The long-range transport plays an important role in the formation of haze episodes in summertime of Nanjing.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by Commonweal Program of Environment Protection Department of China (Grant No. 201409027–05), International ST Cooperation Program of China (ISTCP) (Grant No. 2014DFA90780) and Postgraduate Innovation Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. CXZZ11_0611).

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  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Environment Monitoring & Pollution Control, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Fenping Cui, Mindong Chen, Yan Ma, Jun Zheng, Lei Yao & Yaoyao Zhou

  2. School of Physics & Opto-electronic Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Fenping Cui

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  1. Fenping Cui
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Cui, F., Chen, M., Ma, Y. et al. Optical properties and chemical apportionment of summertime PM2.5 in the suburb of Nanjing. J Atmos Chem 73, 119–135 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10874-015-9313-5

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