Particle Climatology in Central East China Retrieved from Measurements in Planetary Boundary Layer and in Free Troposphere at a 1500-m-High Mountaintop Site

Xiaojing Shen; Junying Sun; Xiaoye Zhang; Niku Kiveka¨s; Yangmei Zhang; Tingting Wang; Xiaochun Zhang; Yun Yang; Dezhong Wang; Yong Zhao; Dahe Qin

doi:10.4209/aaqr.2015.02.0070

Particle Climatology in Central East China Retrieved from Measurements in Planetary Boundary Layer and in Free Troposphere at a 1500-m-High Mountaintop Site

Xiaojing Shen¹, Junying Sun ¹^,2, Xiaoye Zhang¹, Niku Kivekäs³, Yangmei Zhang¹, Tingting Wang¹^,4, Xiaochun Zhang⁵, Yun Yang¹, Dezhong Wang⁶, Yong Zhao⁶, Dahe Qin²

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¹Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry of CMA, Institute of Atmospheric Composition, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China
²State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Region Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
³Finnish Meteorological Institute, P.O. Box 503, 00101 Helsinki, Finland
⁴Heilongjiang Province Meteorological Bureau, Harbin, China
⁵CMA Meteorological Observation Centre, Beijing, China
⁶Taishan National Basic Meteorological Observation Station, Tai'an, China

Received: March 11, 2015
Revised: June 7, 2015
Accepted: August 24, 2015
Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2015.02.0070

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Cite this article:
Shen, X., Sun, J., Zhang, X., Kivekäs, N., Zhang, Y., Wang, T., Zhang, X., Yang, Y., Wang, D., Zhao, Y. and Qin, D. (2016). Particle Climatology in Central East China Retrieved from Measurements in Planetary Boundary Layer and in Free Troposphere at a 1500-m-High Mountaintop Site. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 16: 689-701. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.2015.02.0070

HIGHLIGHTS

Particle number size distribution at mountain station in central east China.
Particle number concentration and size distribution is derived for PBL and FT.
The diurnal variation was influenced mostly by NPF events and the PBL.
This seasonality was caused by PBL and air mass advection.
New Particle Formation events were frequently observed.

ABSTRACT

Particle number size distribution (PNSD) is an important variable for evaluating the effect of aerosols on climate. In this study, the PNSD in the size range of 3 nm–2.5 µm was measured over a 20-month period at Mt. Tai station, located at ~1500 m asl. in central east China (CEC). The mean particle number concentrations in the nucleation (N_nuc, 3–25 nm), Aitken (N_Ait, 25–100 nm), accumulation modes (N_acc, 100–1000 nm) and in total measured particle size range were 3200 cm^–3, 5200 cm^–3, 3400 cm^–3, and 11800 cm^–3, respectively. New particle formation (NPF) events determined from the PNSD data occurred on 32% of measured days, with particle formation rate and growth rate of 4.0 ± 3.7 cm^–3 s^–1 and 6.1 ± 2.5 nm h^–1, respectively. Time periods of 12:00–17:00 and 23:00–7:00 local time were selected to represent periods when the air mass at the station was dominated by planetary boundary layer (PBL) and free troposphere (FT) air, respectively. The diurnal variation of particle number concentration was influenced mostly by NPF events and evolution of the PBL. When NPF event days were excluded, the particle number concentration also experienced a seasonal variation with maximum in summer and minimum in winter. This seasonality was influenced by seasonal variations in PBL evolution and by air mass advection. The results of this study characterize the regional particle climatology in central east China in terms of particle number and size.