Effect of atmospheric parameters on fine particulate concentration in suburban Shanghai

Abstract

A study was conducted on the effect of atmospheric parameters, including temperature, wind speed, and relative humidity, on fine particulate mass concentrations measured in Jiading District of Shanghai, China, during the period from January 2009 to January 2010. A sensitivity analysis was applied to investigate the interaction between atmospheric parameters and particulate mass concentration. The experiment revealed that the concentration of particulates increased with particle size from 0.1 to 1.0μm, and decreased with the increase of particle size from 1.0 to 2.5μm. The effects of atmospheric parameters on fine mass concentrations were significantly particle size-dependent. The PM1.0–2.5 may come from the size increase of smaller particulates after moisture absorption. And the variation of concentrations of PM0.1–1.0 was mainly attributed to the accumulation of PM0.1. The ventilation index and dilution index were calculated on the basis of data collected in December 2009. A correlation analysis indicated that there was a significant relation between these two indexes and the particulate concentration by examining the three particle size ranges, 0.0–0.1, 0.1–1.0, and 1.0–2.5μm. The Spearman correlation coefficients that related the ventilation index to the concentration for the three particle size ranges were −0.45, −0.56 and −0.47, respectively, while the coefficients that related the dilution index to the concentration were −0.36, −0.42 and −0.45, respectively.