Characterization of a rural aerosol from eastern Arizona (original) (raw)
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Comparison of Intercontinental Aerosols: Desert and Monsoon-Influenced Regions
Physical Science International Journal, 2017
AIM: This research project was undertaken to compare the optical and physical properties of aerosols at the 0.440 μm, 0.675 μm, 0.870 μm and 1.020 μm spectral wavelengths between desert and monsoon-influenced regions. In this project, Zinder, one of the popular cities in the Republic of Niger and Beijing, the capital city of China were chosen to represent desert and monsooninfluenced regions respectively. Place and Duration of Study: Four years of Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data were extracted from level 2.0, the quality-assured almucantar version products of AERONET data, at both Beijing-CAMS (39.933°N, 116.317°E) and Zinder Airport (13.775°N, 8.984°E) between 2012 and 2015. Methodology: In this research project, physical and optical properties of aerosols were determined using Angstrom equations. Angstrom exponent, curvature, turbidity coefficient and spectral variation of the aerosols in Zinder Airport and Beijing-CAMS were calculated and the results were then compared. Both the physical and optical properties of the aerosols were determined from the calculated values. Results: The results obtained indicated that there were dominant coarse-mode aerosol particles in Zinder city, while fine-mode aerosol particles were found in Beijing. The results also showed that the overall Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) in Zinder is higher than that of Beijing, but the atmosphere of Beijing was hazier than that of Zinder. The prevalence of coarse-mode particle sizes in Zinder was due to desert dust particles in the region, while the prevalence of fine-mode particles in Beijing was due to anthropogenic aerosol particle generation in the region, which may result from heavy industrialization in China. The higher aerosol loading in Zinder is responsible for absorbing light coming from the sun which, in turn, makes the atmosphere clear, while the lower aerosol loading in Beijing is responsible for scattering light coming from the sun, thereby obstructing the atmospheric visibility in the region.
Atmosphere, 2015
This study uses more than a decade's worth of data across Arizona to characterize the spatiotemporal distribution, frequency, and source of extreme aerosol events, defined as when the concentration of a species on a particular day exceeds that of the average plus two standard deviations for that given month. Depending on which of eight sites studied, between 5% and 7% of the total days exhibited an extreme aerosol event due to either extreme levels of PM 10 , PM 2.5 , and/or fine soil. Grand Canyon exhibited the most extreme event days (120, i.e., 7% of its total days). Fine soil is the pollutant type that most frequently impacted multiple sites at once at an extreme level. PM 10 , PM 2.5 , fine soil, non-Asian dust, and Elemental Carbon extreme events occurred most frequently in August. Nearly all Asian dust extreme events occurred between March and June. Extreme Elemental Carbon events have decreased as a function of time with statistical significance, while other pollutant categories did not show any significant change. Extreme events were most frequent for the various pollutant categories on either Wednesday or
Generation and growth of aerosols over Pune, India
Atmospheric Environment, 2009
Flame heights and flame heat-flux distributions are measured for a wide range of fuels burning between two parallel panels. The flame heat flux levels are very sensitive to fuel sootiness. The heat flux distributions are obtained from the transient temperature rise of thermocouples peened into the steel parallel panel sidewalls. The measured flame heights imply an actual heat release rate per unit flame volume,