Continuous measurement of number concentrations and elemental composition of aerosol particles for a dust storm event in Beijing

Abstract

A continuous measurement of number size distributions and chemical composition of aerosol particles was conducted in Beijing in a dust storm event during 21–26 March 2001. The number concentration of coarse particles (>2 μm) increased more significantly than fine particles (<2 μm) during the dust storm due to dust weather, while the anthropogenic aerosols collected during the non-dust-storm period tended to be associated with fine particles. Elemental compositions were analyzed by using proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE). The results show that 20 elements in the dust storm were much higher than in the non-dust-storm period. The calculated soil dust concentration during the dust storm was, on average, 251.8 μg m−3, while it was only 52.1 μg m−3 on non-dust-storm days. The enrichment factors for Mg, Al, P, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Cl, Cu, Pb, and Zn show small variations between the dust storm and the non-dust-storm period, while those for Ca, Ni and Cr in the dust storm were much lower than those in the non-dust-storm period due to significant local emission sources. A high concentration and enrichment factor for S were observed during the dust storm, which implies that the dust particles were contaminated by aerosol particles from anthropogenic emissions during the long-range transport. A statistical analysis shows that the elemental composition of particles collected during the dust storm in Beijing were better correlated with those of desert soil colleted from desert regions in Inner Mongolia. Air mass back-trajectory analysis further confirmed that this dust storm event could be identified as streaks of dust plumes originating from Inner Mongolia.