Characterization and source apportionment of particle number concentration at a semi-urban tropical environment.
Principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation have been used to study the variability of particle mass and particle number concentrations (PNC) in a tropical semi-urban environment. PNC and mass concentration (diameter in the range of 0.25->32.0 μm) have been measured from 1 February to 26 February 2013 using an in situ Grimm aerosol sampler. We found that the 24-h average total suspended particulates (TSP), particulate matter ≤10 μm (PM10), particulate matter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) and particulate matter ≤1 μm (PM1) were 14.37 ± 4.43, 14.11 ± 4.39, 12.53 ± 4.13 and 10.53 ± 3.98 μg m(-3), respectively. PNC in the accumulation mode (<500 nm) was the most abundant (at about 99 %). Five principal components (PCs) resulted from the PCA analysis where PC1 (43.8 % variance) predominates with PNC in the fine and sub-microme tre range. PC2, PC3, PC4 and PC5 explain 16.5, 12.4, 6.0 and 5.6 % of the variance to address the coarse, coarser, accumulation and giant fraction of PNC, respectively. Our particle distribution results show good agreement with the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) distribution.
Centre for Tropical Climate Change System (IKLIM), Institute for Climate Change, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia, mdfiroz.khan@ukm.edu.my.
Md Firoz
MF
Khan
Mohd Talib
MT
Latif
Norhaniza
N
Amil
Liew
L
Juneng
Noorlin
N
Mohamad
Mohd Shahrul Mohd
MS
Nadzir
Hossain Mohammed Syedul
HM
Hoque
D000336:Aerosols; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D010316:Particle Size; D052638:Particulate Matter / Q000032:analysis*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D013785:Thailand; D014329:Tropical Climate; D014919:Wind
D000336:Aerosols; D000393:Air Pollutants; D052638:Particulate Matter