Size distribution accumulation mode

Fig. 6. Size distribution of an urban aerosol showing the three modes containing much of the aerosol mass. The fine mode contains particles produced by condensation of low volatility gases. The mid-range, or accumulation mode, results from coagulation of smaller aerosols and condensation of gases on preexisting particles. Coarse particulates, the largest aerosols, are usually generated mechanically.

Chu et al. (1987) present results of laboratory studies of the formation of an ultrafine aerosol by converting SO- to sulfuric acid using measurement methods described by Holub and Knutson (1987) and Kulju et al. (1987). It was found that the size of the resulting activity distributions is dependent on the S02 concentration. The role of humidity is still unclear and more studies are needed, but it appears that both future theoretical models and laboratory studies will be extremely fruitful in elucidating the behavior of Po-218 from shortly after its formation until its incorporation into the existing accumulation mode aerosol. 

The environmental conditions for each of the cases considered below are summarized in Table III all these parameters are constant in time. The build up of the nucleation mode of the stable particles and the build up of both the nucleation and accumulation modes of the radon decay products is calculated, and the results are given after a process time of one hour. Figures 1 to 5 show the size distributions of stable and radioactive particles, and Table IV gives the disequilibrium, the equilibrium factor F, the "unattached fraction" f and the plate-out rates for the different daughters. 

Table I presents the average aerodynamic distributions of Pb-212 and Pb-214, as well as the frequency with which Pb-214 or Pb-212 was the dominant isotope in each size range. The Aitken nuclei fraction (below 0.08 pm) contained a higher percentage of Pb-212 activity compared with Pb-214 in 69.6% of the measurements. The predominance of Pb-212 in this fraction is also illustrated by the distributions reported in Figure 1. In the remaining measurements, where Pb-214 was fractionally more abundant below 0.08 um, the disparity between the relative amounts of each isotope was not nearly as dramatic. Conversely, Figure 1 and Table I illustrate that Pb-214 is generally enriched in the accumulation mode aerosol, particularly between 0.11 and 0.52 ]xm, where most of the surface area and mass occurs.

In Figure 2 we show the amount of Al, Fe, Sc, V, U, and Se in particles per log-size-interval of each impactor stage, per m of gas plotted against the mass median diameters (mmd) of Table I. Note that in choosing the mmd and log-size interval for the filter, we assumed that the submicrometer distribution is log-normal and that all of the mass on the filter is contained in particles of diameters between 0.01 and 0.07 Mm. These data suggest that the impactor intervals nicely bracket the accumulation mode that occurrs at 0.11 Mm. 

FIGURE 9.7 Schematic of an atmospheric aerosol size distribution showing four modes. The original hypothesis of Whitby and co-workers is shown by the solid, trimodal curves, and the fourth, ultrafine particle mode, as well as the two peaks sometimes observed in the accumulation mode are shown by the dashed lines (adapted from Whitby and Sverdrup, 1980). 

For example, Fig. 9.23a shows the measured volume distribution of one ambient aerosol sample. When this volume distribution is multiplied by the size distribution of the scattering coefficient per unit volume in Fig. 9.22, one obtains the calculated curve for light scattering in Fig. 9.23b. It is seen that the particles in the 0.1-to 1-yu.m-diameter range, that is, in the accumulation mode, are clearly expected to predominate the light scattering. 

Although the SEMS represents a marked advance in the state of the art for measurement of aerosol size distribution, an important gap remains in current measurement technology, namely, the ability to make rapid, high-resolution measurements of the accumulation-mode aerosols on-line. The limitation of the DMA or SEMS for measurement of particles larger than 0.2 xm in diameter is the multiple charging that allows particles of two or more different sizes to contribute a given mobility fraction. Regardless of... 

THE AMBIENT ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOL consists of liquid and solid particles that can persist for significant periods of time in air. Generally, most of the mass of the atmospheric aerosol consists of particles between 0.01 and 100 xm in diameter distributed around two size modes a coarse or mechanical mode centered around 10- to 20- xm particle diameter, and an accumulation mode centered around 0.2- to 0.8- xm particle diameter (1). The former is produced by mechanical processes, often natural in origin, and includes particles such as fine soils, sea spray, pollen, and other materials. Such particles are generated easily, but they also settle out rapidly because of deposition velocities of several centimeters per second. The accumulation mode is dominated by particles generated by combustion processes, industrial processes, and secondary particles created by gases converting to par-... 

Figure 1. Example of compositionally resolved bimodal and monomodal distributions of aerosols. The ordinate gives the percent of the species found in the given size fraction of the impactor. The mode near 0.3 xm is the accumulation mode , and that above 8 xm is the coarse mode The minimum of mass between 1 and 2 xm is typical the chlorine distribution is anomalous. Chlorine is in fact a coarse-mode marine aerosol that has lost its larger particles during transport from the ocean to Davis, California, a distance of roughly 100 km. (Reproduced with permission from reference 15. Copyright 1988.)...

Number concentrations are dominated by submicron particles, whereas the mass concentrations are strongly influenced by particle concentrations in 0.1-10 pm diameter range [13]. Similarly, the variability of the number-based measurements is strongly dominated by variability in smaller diameter ranges, whereas the variability of mass-based properties, such as PM10, are dominated by variability in the accumulation mode (usually around 500 nm of mass mean diameter) and in the coarse mode. This means the variabilities of these properties are not necessarily similar in shorter timescales, due to sensitivity of variance from very different air masses and thus aerosol types. This is demonstrated in Fig. lb, where the variance of the each size class of particle number concentrations between 3 and 1,000 nm is shown for SMEAR II station in Hyytiala, Finland. The variance has similarities to the particle number size distribution (Fig. la), but there are also significant differences, especially on smaller particles sizes. Even though in the median particle number size distribution the nucleation mode is visible only weakly, it is a major contributor to submicron particle number concentration variability. 

At the Mediterranean station Finokalia (FKL) located in the Greek island of Crete, the particle number size distributions were bimodal for winter with an Aitken mode around 50 nm particle diameter and accumulation mode at 150 nm. The spring and summer were dominated by strong accumulation mode at around 100 nm. 

Figure 9 (adapted from [18]) shows some of the typical correlations between particle number concentrations between 30 and 100 nm (here referred to as Aitken mode, although a more rigorous derivation would require actual modal fitting) and concentrations between 100 and 500 nm ( accumulation mode ). The idea of this kind of plot is to show the possible correlation between the two aerosol modes, to indentify some of the main particle number size distribution types, and whether the particle number concentrations in both modes increase in the same rate. 

As a result of the particle size-dependent properties the accumulation mode particles having highest penetration efficiencies and lowest deposition rates tend to enter indoors most efficiently and remain suspended there, thus substantially contributing to indoor exposures. Another implication is that the particle size distribution indoors differs significantly from that outdoors, even in the absence of indoor sources. Finally particle infiltration varies from home to home, resulting in higher variability across homes in indoor particle concentrations compared to outdoor concentrations. 

Most of the studies on size-resolved aerosol mass concentrations in areas with different levels of pollution show that particulate matter typically exhibit a bimodal distribution, with most of their mass being found in the submicron size range (dae < 1pm) and an additional minor mode in the coarse fraction (1 < dae < 10 pm) (Maenhaut et al., 2002 Smolfk et al., 2003 Wang et al., 2003 Gajananda et al., 2005 Samara and Voutsa, 2005). However, with instrumentation allowing more precise measurements, the aerosol mass size distribution was found to be multimodal with the preponderance of a fine mode (dae < 0.2 pm) and an accumulation mode (dae 0.5pm), with a minor coarse mode at d 3-4pm (Raes et al., 2000 Pillai and Moorthy, 2001 Berner et al., 2004). Traditionally, atmospheric researchers classify airborne particles into three size classes coarse (2.5 < c/ ie < 10pm), fine... 

Based on the use of the NARCM regional model of climate and formation of the field of concentration and size distribution of aerosol, Munoz-Alpizar et al. (2003) calculated the transport, diffusion, and deposition of sulfate aerosol using an approximate model of the processes of sulfur oxidation that does not take the chemical processes in urban air into account. However, the 3-D evolution of microphysical and optical characteristics of aerosol was discussed in detail. The results of numerical modeling were compared with observational data near the surface and in the free troposphere carried out on March 2, 4, and 14, 1997. Analysis of the time series of observations at the airport in Mexico City revealed low values of visibility in the morning due to the small thickness of the ABL, and the subsequent improvement of visibility as ABL thickness increased. Estimates of visibility revealed its strong dependence on wind direction and aerosol size distribution. Calculations have shown that increased detail in size distribution presentation promotes a more reliable simulation of the coagulation processes and a more realistic size distribution characterized by the presence of the accumulation mode of aerosol with the size of particles 0.3 pm. In this case, the results of visibility calculations become more reliable, too. 

Figure 6 Several views of the size distribution of a hypothetical aerosol consisting of three modes denoted nuclei, accumulation, and coarse. Panel (a) is a log-log plot of number distribution of the three modes and their sum as a function of particle diameter. Dp. Panels (b)-(d) are semi-log plots of number N), surface area (5), and volume (V) distributions, respectively (Whitby, 1978) (reproduced by permission of Elsevier from Atmos. Environ. 1978, 72,...

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