Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 10 5 2010 10.5194/acpd-10-11615-2010 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/11615/2010/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/11615/2010/acpd-10-11615-2010.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/11615/2010/acpd-10-11615-2010.pdf 11615 11657 2010-05-03 Particle formation and growth at five rural and urban sites C.-H. Jeong G. J. Evans greg.evans@utoronto.ca M. L. McGuire R. Y.-W. Chang J. P. D. Abbatt K. Zeromskiene M. Mozurkewich S.-M. Li W. R. Leaitch Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosol Research, University of Toronto, 200 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3E5, Canada Chemistry Department and Centre for Atmospheric Chemistry, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada Science and Technology Branch, Environment Canada, 4905 Dufferin Street, Toronto, Ontario, M3H 5T4, Canada Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto,\newline Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada Ultrafine particle (UFP) number and size distributions were simultaneously measured at five urban and rural sites in Southern Ontario, Canada as part of the Border Air Quality and Meteorology Study (BAQS-Met 2007). Particle formation and growth events at these five sites were classified based on their strength and persistence as well as the variation in geometric mean diameter. Regional nucleation and growth events and local short-lived strong nucleation events were frequently observed at the near-border rural sites, upwind of industrial sources. Surprisingly, the particle number concentrations at one of these sites were higher than the concentrations at a downtown site in a major city, despite its high traffic density. Regional nucleation and growth events were favored at intense solar irradiance and less polluted cooler drier air. The most distinctive regional particle nucleation and growth event during the campaign was observed simultaneously at all five sites, which were up to 350 km apart. Although the ultrafine particle concentrations and size distributions generally were spatially heterogeneous across the region, a more uniform spatial distribution of UFP across the five areas was observed during this regional nucleation event. 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