1. Insights into the single-particle composition, size, mixing state, and aspect ratio of freshly emitted mineral dust from field measurements in the Moroccan Sahara using electron microscopyAgnesh Panta, Konrad Kandler, Andrés Alastuey, Cristina González-Flórez, Adolfo Gonzalez-Romero, Martina Klose, Xavier Querol, Cristina Reche, Jesús Yus-Díez, Carlos Pérez García-Pando, 2023, original scientific article Abstract: Abstract. The chemical and morphological properties of mineral dust aerosols emitted by wind erosion from arid and semi-arid regions influence climate, ocean, and land ecosystems; air quality; and multiple socio-economic sectors. However, there is an incomplete understanding of the emitted dust particle size distribution (PSD) in terms of its constituent minerals that typically result from the fragmentation of soil aggregates during wind erosion. The emitted dust PSD affects the duration of particle transport and thus each mineral's global distribution, along with its specific effect upon climate. This lack of understanding is largely due to the scarcity of relevant in situ measurements in dust sources. To advance our understanding of the physicochemical properties of the emitted dust PSD, we present insights into the elemental composition and morphology of individual dust particles collected during the FRontiers in dust minerAloGical coMposition and its Effects upoN climaTe (FRAGMENT) field campaign in the Moroccan Sahara in September 2019. We analyzed more than 300 000 freshly emitted individual particles by performing offline analysis in the laboratory using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). Eight major particle-type classes were identified with clay minerals making up the majority of the analyzed particles both by number and mass, followed by quartz, whereas carbonates and feldspar contributed to a lesser extent. We provide an exhaustive analysis of the PSD and potential mixing state of different particle types, focusing largely on iron-rich (Fe oxide-hydroxides) and feldspar particles, which are key to the effects of dust upon radiation and clouds, respectively. Nearly pure or externally mixed Fe oxide-hydroxides are present mostly in diameters smaller than 2 µm, with the highest fraction below 1 µm at about 3.75 % abundance by mass. Fe oxide-hydroxides tend to be increasingly internally mixed with other minerals, especially clays, as particle size increases; i.e., the volume fraction of Fe oxide-hydroxides in aggregates decreases with particle size. Pure (externally mixed) feldspar represented 3.2 % of all the particles by mass, of which we estimated about a 10th to be K-feldspar. The externally mixed total feldspar and K-feldspar abundances are relatively invariant with particle size, in contrast to the increasing abundance of feldspar-like (internally mixed) aggregates with particle size with mass fractions ranging from 5 % to 18 %. We also found that overall the median aspect ratio is rather constant across particle size and mineral groups, although we obtain slightly higher aspect ratios for internally mixed particles. The detailed information on the composition of freshly emitted individual dust particles and quantitative analysis of their mixing state presented here can be used to constrain climate models including mineral species in their representation of the dust cycle. Keywords: mineral dust, Moroccan Sahara, electron microscopy Published in RUNG: 13.05.2024; Views: 1076; Downloads: 8 Full text (7,13 MB) This document has many files! More... |
2. Compositional changes of ▫$PM_2.5$▫ in NE Spain during 2009–2018 : a trend analysis of the chemical composition and source apportionmentMarten in 't Veld, Andrés Alastuey, Marco Pandolfi, Fulvio Amato, Noemí Perez, Cristina Reche, Marta Via, Maria Cruz Minguillon, Miguel Escudero, Xavier Querol, 2021, original scientific article Keywords: PM2.5, aerosol, source apportionment Published in RUNG: 10.05.2024; Views: 1005; Downloads: 3 Full text (3,62 MB) |
3. Changes in air quality during the lockdown in Barcelona (Spain) one month into the SARS-CoV-2 epidemicAurelio Tobías, Cristina Carnerero, Jordi Massagué, Marta Via, Maria Cruz Minguillon, Andrés Alastuey, Xavier Querol, 2020, original scientific article Keywords: covid, aerosol, traffic, PM Published in RUNG: 10.05.2024; Views: 879; Downloads: 0 This document has many files! More... |
4. Absorption enhancement of black carbon particles in a Mediterranean city and countryside : effect of particulate matter chemistry, ageing and trend analysisJesús Yus-Díez, Marta Via, Andrés Alastuey, Angeliki Karanasiou, Maria Cruz Minguillon, Noemí Perez, Xavier Querol, Cristina Reche, Matic Ivančič, Martin Rigler, 2022, original scientific article Abstract: Abstract. Black carbon (BC) is recognized as the most important warming agent among atmospheric aerosol particles. The absorption efficiency of pure BC is rather well-known, nevertheless the mixing of BC with other aerosol particles can enhance the BC light absorption efficiency, thus directly affecting Earth's radiative balance. The effects on climate of the BC absorption enhancement due to the mixing with these aerosols are not yet well constrained because these effects depend on the availability of material for mixing with BC, thus creating regional variations. Here we present the mass absorption cross-section (MAC) and absorption enhancement of BC particles (Eabs), at different wavelengths (from 370 to 880 nm for online measurements and at 637 nm for offline measurements) measured at two sites in the western Mediterranean, namely Barcelona (BCN; urban background) and Montseny (MSY; regional background). The Eabs values ranged between 1.24 and 1.51 at the urban station, depending on the season and wavelength used as well as on the pure BC MAC used as a reference. The largest contribution to Eabs was due to the internal mixing of BC particles with other aerosol compounds, on average between a 91 % and a 100 % at 370 and 880 nm, respectively. Additionally, 14.5 % and 4.6 % of the total enhancement at the short ultraviolet (UV) wavelength (370 nm) was due to externally mixed brown carbon (BrC) particles during the cold and the warm period, respectively. On average, at the MSY station, a higher Eabs value was observed (1.83 at 637 nm) compared to BCN (1.37 at 637 nm), which was associated with the higher fraction of organic aerosols (OA) available for BC coating at the regional station, as denoted by the higher organic carbon to elemental carbon (OC:EC) ratio observed at MSY compared to BCN. At both BCN and MSY, Eabs showed an exponential increase with the amount of non-refractory (NR) material available for coating (RNR-PM). The Eabs at 637 nm at the MSY regional station reached values up to 3 during episodes with high RNR-PM, whereas in BCN, Eabs kept values lower than 2 due to the lower relative amount of coating materials measured at BCN compared to MSY. The main sources of OA influencing Eabs throughout the year were hydrocarbon OA (HOA) and cooking-related OA (COA), i.e. primary OA (POA) from traffic and cooking emissions, respectively, at both 370 and 880 nm. At the short UV wavelength (370 nm), a strong contribution to Eabs from biomass burning OA (BBOA) and less oxidized oxygenated OA (LO-OOA) sources was observed in the colder period. Moreover, we found an increase of Eabs with the ageing state of the particles, especially during the colder period. This increase of Eabs with particle ageing was associated with a larger relative amount of secondary OA (SOA) compared to POA. The availability of a long dataset at both stations from offline measurements enabled a decade-long trend analysis of Eabs at 637 nm, that showed statistically significant (s.s.) positive trends of Eabs during the warmer months at the MSY station. This s.s. positive trend in MSY mirrored the observed increase of the OC:EC ratio over time. Moreover, in BCN during the COVID-19 lockdown period in spring 2020 we observed a sharp increase of Eabs due to the observed sharp increase of the OC:EC ratio. Our results show similar values of Eabs to those found in the literature for similar background stations. Keywords: black carbomn, coating, organic aerosol, light absorption Published in RUNG: 10.05.2024; Views: 1045; Downloads: 5 Full text (2,74 MB) This document has many files! More... |
5. Increase in secondary organic aerosol in an urban environment : Increase in secondary organic aerosol in an urban environmentMarta Via, Maria Cruz Minguillon, Cristina Reche, Xavier Querol, Andrés Alastuey, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: The evolution of fine aerosol (PM1) species as well as the contribution of potential sources to the total organic aerosol (OA) at an urban background site in Barcelona, in the western Mediterranean basin (WMB) was investigated. For this purpose, a quadrupole aerosol chemical speciation monitor (Q-ACSM) was deployed to acquire real-time measurements for two 1-year periods: May 2014–May 2015 (period A) and September 2017–October 2018 (period B). Total PM1 concentrations showed a slight decrease (from 10.1 to 9.6 μgm�3 from A to B), although the relative contribution of inorganic and organic compounds varied significantly. Regarding inorganic compounds, SO42- , black carbon(BC) and NH4+ showed a significant decrease from period
A to B (21 %, 18% and 9 %, respectively), whilst NO3- concentrations were higher in B (8 %). Source apportionment
revealed OA contained 46% and 70% secondary OA (SOA) in periods A and B, respectively. Two secondary oxygenated OA sources (OOA) were differentiated by their oxidation status (i.e. ageing): less oxidized (LO-OOA) and more oxidized (MO-OOA). Disregarding winter periods, when LO-OOA production was not favoured, LO-OOA transformation into MO-OOA was found to be more effective in
period B. The lowest LO-OOA-to-MO-OOA ratio, excluding winter, was in September–October 2018 (0.65), implying an accumulation of aged OA after the high temperature and solar radiation conditions in the summer season. In addition to temperature, SOA (sum of OOA factors) was enhanced by exposure to NOx-polluted ambient and other pollutants, especially to O3 and during afternoon hours. The anthropogenic primary OA sources identified, cooking-related
OA (COA), hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA), and biomass burning OA (BBOA), decreased from period A to B in both absolute concentrations and relative contribution (as a whole, 44% and 30 %, respectively). However, their concentrations and proportion to OA grew rapidly during highly polluted episodes. The influence of certain atmospheric episodes on OA sources was also assessed. Both SOA factors were boosted with long- and medium-range circulations, especially those coming from inland Europe and the Mediterranean (triggering mainly MO-OOA) and summer breeze-driven regional circulation (mainly LO-OOA). In contrast, POA was
enhanced either during air-renewal episodes or stagnation anticyclonic events. Keywords: aerosol, organic aerosol, source apportionment, PM1, particulate matter Published in RUNG: 10.05.2024; Views: 1190; Downloads: 6 Full text (4,93 MB) This document has many files! More... |
6. Characterizing the sources of ambient ▫$PM_10$▫ organic aerosol in urban and rural Catalonia, SpainMarten in ʼt Veld, Peeyush Khare, Yufang Hao, Cristina Reche, Noemí Perez, Andrés Alastuey, Jesús Yus-Díez, Nicolas Marchand, Andre S. H. Prevot, Xavier Querol, Kaspar Rudolf Daellenbach, 2023, original scientific article Keywords: PM10, chemical composition, organic aerosols, SOA, source apportionment Published in RUNG: 23.10.2023; Views: 2086; Downloads: 7 Full text (7,72 MB) This document has many files! More... |
7. Determination of the multiple-scattering correction factor and its cross-sensitivity to scattering and wavelength dependence for different AE33 Aethalometer filter tapes : a multi-instrumental approachJesús Yus-Díez, Vera Bernardoni, Griša Močnik, Andrés Alastuey, Davide Ciniglia, Matic Ivančič, Xavier Querol, Noemí Perez, Cristina Reche, Martin Rigler, Roberta Vecchi, Sara Valentini, Marco Pandolfi, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: Providing reliable observations of aerosol particles' absorption properties at spatial and temporal resolutions suited to climate models is of utter importance to better understand the effects that atmospheric particles have on climate. Nowadays, one of the instruments most widely used in international monitoring networks for in situ surface measurements of light absorption properties of atmospheric aerosol particles is the multi-wavelength dual-spot Aethalometer, AE33. The AE33 derives the absorption coefficients of aerosol particles at seven different wavelengths from the measurements of the optical attenuation of light through a filter where particles are continuously collected. An accurate determination of the absorption coefficients from the AE33 instrument relies on the quantification of the non-linear processes related to the sample collection on the filter. The multiple-scattering correction factor (C), which depends on the filter tape used and on the optical properties of the collected particles, is the parameter with both the greatest uncertainty and the greatest impact on the absorption coefficients derived from the AE33 measurements.
Here we present an in-depth analysis of the AE33 multiple-scattering correction factor C and its wavelength dependence for two different and widely used filter tapes, namely the old, and most referenced, TFE-coated glass, or M8020, filter tape and the currently, and most widely used, M8060 filter tape. For performing this analysis, we compared the attenuation measurements from AE33 with the absorption coefficients measured with different filter-based techniques. On-line co-located multi-angle absorption photometer (MAAP) measurements and off-line PP_UniMI polar photometer measurements were employed as reference absorption measurements for this work. To this aim, we used data from three different measurement stations located in the north-east of Spain, namely an urban background station (Barcelona, BCN), a regional background station (Montseny, MSY) and a mountaintop station (Montsec d'Ares, MSA). The median C values (at 637 nm) measured at the three stations ranged between 2.29 (at BCN and MSY, lowest 5th percentile of 1.97 and highest 95th percentile of 2.68) and 2.51 (at MSA, lowest 5th percentile of 2.06 and highest 95th percentile of 3.06). The analysis of the cross-sensitivity to scattering, for the two filter tapes considered here, revealed a large increase in the C factor when the single-scattering albedo (SSA) of the collected particles was above a given threshold, up to a 3-fold increase above the average C values. The SSA threshold appeared to be site dependent and ranged between 0.90 to 0.95 for the stations considered in the study. The results of the cross-sensitivity to scattering displayed a fitted constant multiple-scattering parameter, Cf, of 2.21 and 1.96, and a cross-sensitivity factor, ms, of 1.8 % and 3.4 % for the MSY and MSA stations, respectively, for the TFE-coated glass filter tape. For the M8060 filter tape, Cf values of 2.50, 1.96 and 1.82 and ms values of 1.6 %, 3.0 % and 4.9 % for the BCN, MSY and MSA stations, respectively, were obtained. SSA variations also influenced the spectral dependence of C, which showed an increase with wavelength when SSA was above the site-dependent threshold. Below the SSA threshold, no statistically significant dependence of C on the wavelength was observed. For the measurement stations considered here, the wavelength dependence of C was to some extent driven by the presence of dust particles during Saharan dust outbreaks that had the potential to increase the SSA above the average values. At the mountaintop station, an omission of the wavelength dependence of the C factor led to an underestimation of the absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) by up to 12 %. Differences in the absorption coefficient determined from AE33 measurements at BCN, MSY and MSA of around 35 %–40 % can be expected when using the site-dependent experimentally obtained C value instead of the nominal C value. Due to the fundamental role that the SSA of the particles collected on the filter tape has in the multiple-scattering parameter C, we present a methodology that allows the recognition of the conditions upon which the use of a constant and wavelength-independent C is feasible. Keywords: black carbon, aerosol absorption, filter photometer, artifact Published in RUNG: 01.10.2021; Views: 2860; Downloads: 0 This document has many files! More... |
8. Aircraft vertical profiles during summertime regional and Saharan dust scenarios over the north-western Mediterranean basin: aerosol optical and physical propertiesJesús Yus-Díez, Marina Ealo, Marco Pandolfi, Noemi Perez, Gloria Titos, Griša Močnik, Xavier Querol, A. Alastuey, 2021, original scientific article Abstract: Accurate measurements of the horizontal and vertical distribution of atmospheric aerosol particle optical properties are key for a better understanding of their impact on the climate. Here we present the results of a measurement campaign based on instrumented flights over north-eastern Spain. We measured vertical profiles of size-segregated atmospheric particulate matter (PM) mass concentrations and multi-wavelength scattering and absorption coefficients in the western Mediterranean basin (WMB). The campaign took place during typical summer conditions, characterized by the development of a vertical multi-layer structure, under both summer regional pollution episodes (REGs) and Saharan dust events (SDEs). REG patterns in the region form under high insolation and scarce precipitation in summer, favouring layering of highly aged fine-PM strata in the lower few kma.s.l.
The REG scenario prevailed during the entire measurement campaign. Additionally, African dust outbreaks and plumes from northern African wildfires influenced the study area. The vertical profiles of climate-relevant intensive optical parameters such as single-scattering albedo (SSA); the asymmetry parameter (g); scattering, absorption and SSA Ångström exponents (SAE, AAE and SSAAE); and PM mass scattering and absorption cross sections (MSC and MAC) were derived from the measurements. Moreover, we compared the aircraft measurements with those performed at two GAW–ACTRIS (Global Atmosphere Watch–Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases) surface measurement stations located in north-eastern Spain, namely Montseny (MSY; regional background) and Montsec d'Ares (MSA; remote site).
Airborne in situ measurements and ceilometer ground-based remote measurements identified aerosol air masses at altitudes up to more than 3.5 kma.s.l.
The vertical profiles of the optical properties markedly changed according to the prevailing atmospheric scenarios. During SDE the SAE was low along the profiles, reaching values < 1.0 in the dust layers. Correspondingly, SSAAE was negative, and AAE reached values up to 2.0–2.5, as a consequence of the UV absorption increased by the presence of the coarse dust particles. During REG, the SAE increased to > 2.0, and the asymmetry parameter g was rather low (0.5–0.6) due to the prevalence of fine PM, which was characterized by an AAE close to 1.0, suggesting a fossil fuel combustion origin. During REG, some of the layers featured larger AAE (> 1.5), relatively low SSA at 525 nm (< 0.85) and high MSC (> 9 m2 g−1) and were associated with the influence of PM from wildfires. Overall, the SSA and MSC near the ground ranged around 0.85 and 3 m2 g−1, respectively, and increased at higher altitudes, reaching values above 0.95 and up to 9 m2 g−1. The PM, MSC and MAC were on average larger during REG compared to SDE due to the larger scattering and absorption efficiency of fine PM compared with dust. The SSA and MSC had quite similar vertical profiles and often both increased with height indicating the progressive shift toward PM with a larger scattering efficiency with altitude.
This study contributes to our understanding of regional-aerosol vertical distribution and optical properties in the WMB, and the results will be useful for improving future climate projections and remote sensing or satellite retrieval algorithms. Keywords: aerosol, climate change, Saharan dust, black carbon, aerosol absorption, aerosol scattering Published in RUNG: 14.01.2021; Views: 3287; Downloads: 0 This document has many files! More... |