Abstract
Ammonia (NH3) plays an important role in air quality and atmospheric chemistry, yet studies on the characteristics and impacts of NH3 are limited. Herein, we revealed the spatial distribution of atmospheric NH3, as measured by passive samplers, at three different sites (R1, R2, and R3) in the rural area (livestock environment) of Jeongeup, South Korea, from September 2019 to August 2020. At site R1, the boundary of a large-scale pig farm, dramatically high daily mean concentrations of NH3 were observed (118.7 ppb), whereas sites R2 and R3, located ~1 km from R1, exhibited lower concentrations of 18.2 and 30.4 ppb, respectively. In the rural environment, the monthly NH3 variations showed a peak in June (34.2 ppb), which was significantly higher than in the urban and remote areas. To examine the impact of NH3 from the rural area on a nearby urban area in June 2020, simultaneous measurements were performed using a real-time instrument in Jeonju. When high NH3 events occurred in the urban area in June, the results for the NH3 concentrations and observed meteorological conditions in the rural and urban areas showed that the rural area influenced the NH3 levels in the adjacent urban area.
Highlights
Ammonia (NH3) is a base gas that reacts with acidic species in the atmosphere, such as sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3), to produce secondary inorganic aerosols (SIAs)
To access the regional scale transport and local pollution source emissions, a conditional probability function (CPF) analysis was performed using NH3 concentrations, wind direction, and wind speed data obtained from automated synoptic observing system (ASOS)
At site R1, dramatically high NH3 concentrations were recorded, with a daily average of 118.7 ± 51.7 ppb, which varied from a minimum of 40.3 ppb to a maximum of 272.2 ppb (Figure 2a)
Summary
Ammonia (NH3) is a base gas that reacts with acidic species in the atmosphere, such as sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and nitric acid (HNO3), to produce secondary inorganic aerosols (SIAs) These SIAs contribute to the degradation of visibility and air quality, and have adverse effects on human health [1,2,3]. Due to elevated emissions from livestock husbandry and agricultural actives, higher concentrations of ambient NH3 are typically recorded in rural areas [13,14]. Kubota (2020) reported that NH3 concentrations in high emissions areas (i.e., adjacent to livestock sources) were greater in winter (~71 ppb) than those in summer (~56 ppb), which is not a typical seasonal variation pattern [14]. To investigate whether the NH3 emitted from the agricultural source influenced the atmospheric NH3 in the urban area, simultaneous measurements for atmospheric NH3 were carried out in both the rural area (Jeongeup) and a nearby urban area (Jeonju) during summer in June 2020
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