Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 10 7 2010 10.5194/acpd-10-17753-2010 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/17753/2010/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/17753/2010/acpd-10-17753-2010.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/17753/2010/acpd-10-17753-2010.pdf 17753 17788 2010-07-23 Ultrafine particle formation in the inland sea breeze airflow in Southwest Europe R. Fernández-Camacho rocio.fernandez@dgeo.uhu.es S. Rodríguez J. de la Rosa A. M. Sánchez de la Campa M. Viana A. Alastuey X. Querol University of Huelva, Joint Research Unit to CSIC "Atmospheric Pollution", Campus El Carmen, 21071 Huelva, Spain Estación Experimental del Zaidín, CSIC, C/ Profesor Albareda 1, 18008 Granada, Spain Izaña Atmospheric Research Centre, AEMET Joint Research Unit to CSIC "Studies on Atmospheric Pollution", La Marina 20, planta 6, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 38071, Canary Islands, Spain Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDǼA), CSIC, Jordi Girona, 18–26, 08034, Barcelona, Spain Studies on ultrafine particles and air quality have mostly focused on vehicle exhaust emissions and on new particle formation in "clean" ambient air. Here we present a study of the processes contributing to ultrafine particle concentrations in an urban coastal area (Huelva, SW Spain) where significant anthropogenic emissions of aerosol precursors occur. The overall data analysis shows that two processes predominantly contribute to the number of particles coarser than 2.5 nm: vehicle exhaust emissions and new particle formation due to photo-chemical activity. As typically occurs in urban areas, vehicle exhaust emissions result in high concentrations of black carbon (BC) and particles coarser than 2.5 nm (N) during the morning rush hours. The highest N concentrations were recorded during the 11–17 h period, under the sea breeze regime, when photochemical activity resulted in high O₃ levels and new particle formation in the aerosol precursors' rich inland airflow. In this period, it is estimated that about 80% of the number of particles are linked to sulfur dioxide emissions. 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