Characterisation of particle mass and number concentration on the east coast of the Malaysian Peninsula during the northeast monsoon

Dominick, Doreena, Latif, Mohd Talib, Juneng, Liew, Khan, Md Firoz, Amil, Norhaniza, Mead, Mohammed Iqbal, Nadzir, Mohd Shahrul Mohd, Moi, Phang Siew, Samah, Azizan Abu, Ashfold, Matthew J., Sturges, William T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9044-7169, Harris, Neil R P, Robinson, Andrew D. and Pyle, John A. (2015) Characterisation of particle mass and number concentration on the east coast of the Malaysian Peninsula during the northeast monsoon. Atmospheric Environment, 117. pp. 187-199. ISSN 1352-2310

Microsoft Word (Dominick pre-print) - Accepted Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (11MB)

Abstract

Particle mass concentrations (PM10, PM2.5 and PM1) and particle number concentration ((PNC); 0.27 μm ≤ Dp ≤ 34.00 μm) were measured in the tropical coastal environment of Bachok, Kelantan on the Malaysian Peninsula bordering the southern edge of the South China Sea. Statistical methods were applied on a three-month hourly data set (9th January to 24th March 2014) to study the influence of north-easterly winds on the patterns of particle mass and PNC size distributions. The 24-h concentrations of particle mass obtained in this study were below the standard values detailed by the Recommended Malaysian Air Quality Guideline (RMAQG), United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and European Union (EU) except for PM2.5, which recorded a 24-h average of 30 ± 18 μg m-3 and exceeded the World Health Organisation (WHO) threshold value (25 μg m-3). Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that PNC with smaller diameter sizes (0.27-4.50 μm) showed a stronger influence, accounting for 57.6% of the variability in PNC data set. Concentrations of both particle mass and PNC increased steadily in the morning with a distinct peak observed at around 8.00 h, related to a combination of dispersion of accumulated particles overnight and local traffic. In addition to local anthropogenic, agricultural burning and forest fire activities, long-range transport also affects the study area. Hotspot and backward wind trajectory observations illustrated that the biomass burning episode (around February-March) significantly influenced PNC. Meteorological parameters influenced smaller size particles (i.e. PM1 and Dp (0.27-0.43 μm)) the most.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	aerosols,biomass episodes,long-range transport,meteorology,multivariate analysis
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Atmospheric Chemistry (former - to 2018) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Climate, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (former - to 2017) Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Sep 2016 00:56
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2022 01:33
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/60312
DOI:	10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.07.018

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item