Vertical profiles of aerodynamic size distribution for airborne particles over Yangtze River Delta

Abstract

Based on the aircraft observations in the summer of 2003, we have studied the aerodynamic size distributions of airborne particles at altitudes ranging from 400 m to 2800 m over the central and southern areas of Jiangsu province located in Yangtse River Delta of China. The sizes of airborne particles are measured to be in a range of 0.47-30 μm with 57 channels, and their number concentrations, surface area concentrations and mass concentrations are also measured. The results show that the concentrations of airborne particles are very low above an altitude of 2000 m and the size distributions present a specific multi-peak mode by using insufficient samples. Below 1000 m, however, the concentrations of particles increase obviously, and their size distribution is similar to that at the ground level. The study also indicates that the concentrations, size distributions and median diameters of airborne particles above and below the boundary layer are very different, displaying different pollution features. Meanwhile, the results also show that the pollution level of airborne particles has a descending tendency with altitude increasing.