Analyzing the influence of the planetary boundary layer height, ventilation coefficient, thermal inversions, and aerosol optical Depth on the concentration of PM2.5 in the city of São Paulo: A long-term study

Abstract

Cases of intense air pollution have been a recurring problem in most of urban centers in different regions of the world. Although actions to mitigate pollutant emissions are fundamental, it is also necessary to understand which factors can favor their dispersion process. In this scenario, this paper presents, for the first time, a long-term analysis of the Planetary Boundary Layer Height (PBLH), estimated through lidar and radiosounding data, Ventilation Coefficient (VC), Thermal Inversions (TI), and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), for the city of São Paulo, demonstrating how these variables are related with PM2.5 concentration. The analyzes showed that PBLH and VC have a seasonal cycle, with higher values in summer and lower ones in winter. Furthermore, PBLH is affected by one local factor, the sea-breeze, which reduces the concentration of aerosols in the late afternoon, resulting in an underestimated PBLH obtained from lidar data. Furthermore, from AERONET data, a predominance of Black Carbon and small particles was observed in all seasons, which are associated with the feedback effect observed in winter. Such effect attenuates the increase of PBLH and VC in cases of high concentrations of PM2.5. Finally, it was presented a Generalized Linear Model, which combines VC, AOD and TI information as input and can estimate the PM2.5 concentration with a R2 = 0.93.