References

ACPD

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions

ACPD

1680-7375

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acpd-11-3813-2011

On the sub-micron aerosol size distribution in a coastal-rural site at El Arenosillo Station (SW-Spain)

Sorribas

¹ de la Morena

B. A.

¹ Wehner

² López

J. F.

¹ Prats

³ ⁵ Mogo

⁴ Wiedensohler

² Cachorro

V. E.

"El Arenosillo" – Atmospheric Sounding Station, Atmospheric Research and Instrumentation Branch, INTA, Mazagón-Huelva, Spain

Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, Germany

Atmospheric Optics Group, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain

Department of Physics, University of Beira Interior, Covilhã, Portugal

now at: Meteorological State Agency, AEMET, Canary Island, Spain

02 02 2011

11 2 3813 3856

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This study is focused on the analysis of the sub-micron aerosol characteristics at rural and coastal environment in Southwestern Spain. Particle number size distributions were measured in the size range (14–673) nm using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS, Model 3936-TSI), from 15 July 2004 to 31 July 2006 at El Arenosillo Station. Mean total concentration was 8660 cm−3 and mean concentrations for the nucleation, Aitken and accumulation modes particles were 2830 cm−3, 4110 cm−3 and 1720 cm−3, respectively. Mean geometric diameters of the four modes particles, which characterized the mean size distribution per month, were about 16 nm, 42 nm, 103 nm and 237 nm. Two kinds of episodes produced a maximum of the total concentration around noon: the new particle formation and the regional recirculation such as the sea-land breeze. Two types of nucleation events (called N$1 and N2) were observed. Events N1 were an example of the influence of regional sources and Events N2 showed the weight of local industries over the rural and coastal background levels. The 60% of nucleation events were related to NE and NW wind sectors (N1 and N2 respectively), a ΔT higher than 12 °C, a wind speed higher than 2.3 m s−1 and a total surface area for the accumulation mode particles below of 11 190 μ m2 cm−3. The influence of the sea-land breeze processes has been analyzed, observing increases of up to 50%, 110% and 90% of the particle concentration for the nucleation, Aitken and accumulation modes. Annual evolution of monthly averages allowed to conclude that the increase or decrease of 1 cm−3 of the concentration for nucleation mode particles was related to opposite trend of 0.5 cm−3 of the concentration for accumulation mode. This anti-correlation produced a weak seasonal evolution of the total particle concentration.

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