Infrequent occurrence of new particle formation at a semi-rural location, Gadanki, in tropical Southern India

Abstract

We report first measurements of ultrafine particles from a semi-rural location, Gadanki, from tropical Southern India. Measurements of particle number size distributions in the diameter range of 5 nm–32 μm were performed during 2 May–31 July 2012. The mean number concentrations of nucleation (NNUC), Aitken (NAIT), accumulation (NACCU), and total particles (NTOT) at this site were (1.1 ± 0.9) × 103 cm−3, (2.2 ± 1.3) × 103 cm−3, (1.5 ± 1.2) × 103 cm−3 and (4.8 ± 2.4) × 103 cm−3, respectively, comparable to other rural to semi-rural locations globally and declined as the season progressed, perhaps due to wet removal of aerosols with onset of monsoon in early June. Particle bursts in the nucleation mode size range (5–25 nm), followed by a sustained growth in size were observed very rarely (only 5 out of 79 observation days) at this site, less frequently than at most other locations around the world during May–July. Most factors affecting new particle formation (NPF) were similar on NPF and nonNPF event days, such as condensation sink, relative humidity, temperature, wind speed and direction, and mixing layer height. Thus, the infrequent occurrence of NPF at our site appeared to be linked to lower precursor gas concentrations and weak gas-phase oxidation chemistry due to diminished solar radiation on persistently cloudy days with the onset of the monsoon in early June over this region. The derived particle growth rates (GR > 5 nm) and formation rates of 5 nm particles (J5) ranged from 2.2 to 4.7 nm h−1 and 0.4–2.4 cm−3 s−1, with a mean and standard deviation of 3.4 ± 0.9 nm h−1 and 1.2 ± 2.3 cm−3 s−1, respectively, comparable to previous investigations at rural to semi-rural locations. The observed behavior in aerosol and meteorological parameters on NPF and nonNPF event days appeared to be distinctive compared to other rural to urban locations across the globe. However, this distinct behavior is limited and restricted to this site and season of the year, and should therefore not be generalized over a larger spatio-temporal scale. This emphasizes the need for long-term aerosol and precursor measurements over this and other regions of India.