Phenomenology of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distribution across urban Europe

Pedro Trechera; Meritxell Garcia-Marlès; Xiansheng Liu; Cristina Reche; Noemí Pérez; Marjan Savadkoohi; David Beddows; Imre Salma; Máté Vörösmarty; Andrea Casans; Juan Andrés Casquero-Vera; Christoph Hueglin; Nicolas Marchand; Benjamin Chazeau; Grégory Gille; Panayiotis Kalkavouras; Nikos Mihalopoulos; Jakub Ondracek; Nadia Zikova; Jarkko V. Niemi; Hanna E. Manninen; David C. Green; Anja H. Tremper; Michael Norman; Stergios Vratolis; Konstantinos Eleftheriadis; Francisco J. Gómez-Moreno; Elisabeth Alonso-Blanco; Holger Gerwig; Alfred Wiedensohler; Kay Weinhold; Maik Merkel; Susanne Bastian; Jean Eudes Petit; Olivier Favez; Suzanne Crumeyrolle; Nicolas Ferlay; Sebastiao Martins Dos Santos; Jean Philippe Putaud; Hilkka Timonen; Janne Lampilahti; Christof Asbach; Carmen Wolf; Heinz Kaminski; Hicran Altug; Barbara Hoffmann; David Q. Rich; Marco Pandolfi; Roy M. Harrison; Philip K. Hopke; Tuukka Petäjä; Andrés Alastuey; Xavier Querol

doi:10.1016/j.envint.2023.107744

Phenomenology of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distribution across urban Europe

Pedro Trechera^*, Meritxell Garcia-Marlès^*, Xiansheng Liu, Cristina Reche, Noemí Pérez, Marjan Savadkoohi, David Beddows, Imre Salma, Máté Vörösmarty, Andrea Casans, Juan Andrés Casquero-Vera, Christoph Hueglin, Nicolas Marchand, Benjamin Chazeau, Grégory Gille, Panayiotis Kalkavouras, Nikos Mihalopoulos, Jakub Ondracek, Nadia Zikova, Jarkko V. NiemiHanna E. Manninen, David C. Green, Anja H. Tremper, Michael Norman, Stergios Vratolis, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Francisco J. Gómez-Moreno, Elisabeth Alonso-Blanco, Holger Gerwig, Alfred Wiedensohler, Kay Weinhold, Maik Merkel, Susanne Bastian, Jean Eudes Petit, Olivier Favez, Suzanne Crumeyrolle, Nicolas Ferlay, Sebastiao Martins Dos Santos, Jean Philippe Putaud, Hilkka Timonen, Janne Lampilahti, Christof Asbach, Carmen Wolf, Heinz Kaminski, Hicran Altug, Barbara Hoffmann, David Q. Rich, Marco Pandolfi, Roy M. Harrison, Philip K. Hopke, Tuukka Petäjä, Andrés Alastuey, Xavier Querol

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

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Abstract

The 2017–2019 hourly particle number size distributions (PNSD) from 26 sites in Europe and 1 in the US were evaluated focusing on 16 urban background (UB) and 6 traffic (TR) sites in the framework of Research Infrastructures services reinforcing air quality monitoring capacities in European URBAN & industrial areaS (RI-URBANS) project. The main objective was to describe the phenomenology of urban ultrafine particles (UFP) in Europe with a significant air quality focus.

The varying lower size detection limits made it difficult to compare PN concentrations (PNC), particularly PN_10-25, from different cities. PNCs follow a TR > UB > Suburban (SUB) order. PNC and Black Carbon (BC) progressively increase from Northern Europe to Southern Europe and from Western to Eastern Europe. At the UB sites, typical traffic rush hour PNC peaks are evident, many also showing midday-morning PNC peaks anti-correlated with BC. These peaks result from increased PN_10-25, suggesting significant PNC contributions from nucleation, fumigation and shipping.

Site types to be identified by daily and seasonal PNC and BC patterns are: (i) PNC mainly driven by traffic emissions, with marked correlations with BC on different time scales; (ii) marked midday/morning PNC peaks and a seasonal anti-correlation with PNC/BC; (iii) both traffic peaks and midday peaks without marked seasonal patterns. Groups (ii) and (iii) included cities with high insolation.

PNC, especially PN_25-800, was positively correlated with BC, NO₂, CO and PM for several sites. The variable correlation of PNSD with different urban pollutants demonstrates that these do not reflect the variability of UFP in urban environments. Specific monitoring of PNSD is needed if nanoparticles and their associated health impacts are to be assessed. Implementation of the CEN-ACTRIS recommendations for PNSD measurements would provide comparable measurements, and measurements of <10 nm PNC are needed for full evaluation of the health effects of this size fraction.

Original language	English
Article number	107744
Number of pages	17
Journal	Environment International
Volume	172
Early online date	13 Jan 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.107744
Publication status	Published - Feb 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This study is supported by the RI-URBANS project (Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial Areas, European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Green Deal, European Commission, under grant agreement No 101036245). The authors would like to thank ACTRIS (The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure), especially the EBAS Data Centre, for providing datasets for the study. The authors would like to thank also the support from “Agencia Estatal de Investigación” from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and FEDER funds under the projects CAIAC (PID2019-108990RB-I00); and the Generalitat de Catalunya (AGAUR 2021 SGR00447) and the Direcció General de Territori. This study is partly funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, a partnership between UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Imperial College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, UKHSA, or the Department of Health and Social Care. The work in Rochester, NY was funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority under contracts #59802 and 125993. This research is also partly supported by the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (grant no. K132254). We thank the Hessian Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology (HLNUG), Wiesbaden, Germany for providing concentrations of ancillary pollutants of urban background station at Darmstadt. The Stockholm traffic station (Hornsgatan) datasets were provided thanks to the nPETS project (grant agreement no. 954377) funded by the European Union (EU).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Keywords

Aerosols
Air quality
Atmospheric particulate matter
Nanoparticles
Particle number concentrations
Urban environment

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Environmental Science(all)

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.envint.2023.107744

TrecheraP2023PhenomenologyFinal published version, 5.89 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)

RI-URBANS: Research Infrastructures services reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial areaS
Harrison, R.
European Commission
1/10/21 → 30/09/25
Project: EU

Cite this

Trechera, P., Garcia-Marlès, M., Liu, X., Reche, C., Pérez, N., Savadkoohi, M., Beddows, D., Salma, I., Vörösmarty, M., Casans, A., Casquero-Vera, J. A., Hueglin, C., Marchand, N., Chazeau, B., Gille, G., Kalkavouras, P., Mihalopoulos, N., Ondracek, J., Zikova, N., ... Querol, X. (2023). Phenomenology of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distribution across urban Europe. Environment International, 172, Article 107744. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.107744

@article{3e51779a0ab64e6099377f8b314e5ffb,

title = "Phenomenology of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distribution across urban Europe",

abstract = "The 2017–2019 hourly particle number size distributions (PNSD) from 26 sites in Europe and 1 in the US were evaluated focusing on 16 urban background (UB) and 6 traffic (TR) sites in the framework of Research Infrastructures services reinforcing air quality monitoring capacities in European URBAN & industrial areaS (RI-URBANS) project. The main objective was to describe the phenomenology of urban ultrafine particles (UFP) in Europe with a significant air quality focus. The varying lower size detection limits made it difficult to compare PN concentrations (PNC), particularly PN10-25, from different cities. PNCs follow a TR > UB > Suburban (SUB) order. PNC and Black Carbon (BC) progressively increase from Northern Europe to Southern Europe and from Western to Eastern Europe. At the UB sites, typical traffic rush hour PNC peaks are evident, many also showing midday-morning PNC peaks anti-correlated with BC. These peaks result from increased PN10-25, suggesting significant PNC contributions from nucleation, fumigation and shipping. Site types to be identified by daily and seasonal PNC and BC patterns are: (i) PNC mainly driven by traffic emissions, with marked correlations with BC on different time scales; (ii) marked midday/morning PNC peaks and a seasonal anti-correlation with PNC/BC; (iii) both traffic peaks and midday peaks without marked seasonal patterns. Groups (ii) and (iii) included cities with high insolation. PNC, especially PN25-800, was positively correlated with BC, NO2, CO and PM for several sites. The variable correlation of PNSD with different urban pollutants demonstrates that these do not reflect the variability of UFP in urban environments. Specific monitoring of PNSD is needed if nanoparticles and their associated health impacts are to be assessed. Implementation of the CEN-ACTRIS recommendations for PNSD measurements would provide comparable measurements, and measurements of <10 nm PNC are needed for full evaluation of the health effects of this size fraction.",

keywords = "Aerosols, Air quality, Atmospheric particulate matter, Nanoparticles, Particle number concentrations, Urban environment",

author = "Pedro Trechera and Meritxell Garcia-Marl{\`e}s and Xiansheng Liu and Cristina Reche and Noem{\'i} P{\'e}rez and Marjan Savadkoohi and David Beddows and Imre Salma and M{\'a}t{\'e} V{\"o}r{\"o}smarty and Andrea Casans and Casquero-Vera, {Juan Andr{\'e}s} and Christoph Hueglin and Nicolas Marchand and Benjamin Chazeau and Gr{\'e}gory Gille and Panayiotis Kalkavouras and Nikos Mihalopoulos and Jakub Ondracek and Nadia Zikova and Niemi, {Jarkko V.} and Manninen, {Hanna E.} and Green, {David C.} and Tremper, {Anja H.} and Michael Norman and Stergios Vratolis and Konstantinos Eleftheriadis and G{\'o}mez-Moreno, {Francisco J.} and Elisabeth Alonso-Blanco and Holger Gerwig and Alfred Wiedensohler and Kay Weinhold and Maik Merkel and Susanne Bastian and Petit, {Jean Eudes} and Olivier Favez and Suzanne Crumeyrolle and Nicolas Ferlay and {Martins Dos Santos}, Sebastiao and Putaud, {Jean Philippe} and Hilkka Timonen and Janne Lampilahti and Christof Asbach and Carmen Wolf and Heinz Kaminski and Hicran Altug and Barbara Hoffmann and Rich, {David Q.} and Marco Pandolfi and Harrison, {Roy M.} and Hopke, {Philip K.} and Tuukka Pet{\"a}j{\"a} and Andr{\'e}s Alastuey and Xavier Querol",

note = "Funding Information: This study is supported by the RI-URBANS project (Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial Areas, European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Green Deal, European Commission, under grant agreement No 101036245). The authors would like to thank ACTRIS (The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure), especially the EBAS Data Centre, for providing datasets for the study. The authors would like to thank also the support from “Agencia Estatal de Investigaci{\'o}n” from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and FEDER funds under the projects CAIAC (PID2019-108990RB-I00); and the Generalitat de Catalunya (AGAUR 2021 SGR00447) and the Direcci{\'o} General de Territori. This study is partly funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, a partnership between UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Imperial College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, UKHSA, or the Department of Health and Social Care. The work in Rochester, NY was funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority under contracts #59802 and 125993. This research is also partly supported by the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (grant no. K132254). We thank the Hessian Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology (HLNUG), Wiesbaden, Germany for providing concentrations of ancillary pollutants of urban background station at Darmstadt. The Stockholm traffic station (Hornsgatan) datasets were provided thanks to the nPETS project (grant agreement no. 954377) funded by the European Union (EU). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors ",

year = "2023",

month = feb,

doi = "10.1016/j.envint.2023.107744",

language = "English",

volume = "172",

journal = "Environment International",

issn = "0160-4120",

publisher = "Elsevier",

}

Trechera, P, Garcia-Marlès, M, Liu, X, Reche, C, Pérez, N, Savadkoohi, M, Beddows, D, Salma, I, Vörösmarty, M, Casans, A, Casquero-Vera, JA, Hueglin, C, Marchand, N, Chazeau, B, Gille, G, Kalkavouras, P, Mihalopoulos, N, Ondracek, J, Zikova, N, Niemi, JV, Manninen, HE, Green, DC, Tremper, AH, Norman, M, Vratolis, S, Eleftheriadis, K, Gómez-Moreno, FJ, Alonso-Blanco, E, Gerwig, H, Wiedensohler, A, Weinhold, K, Merkel, M, Bastian, S, Petit, JE, Favez, O, Crumeyrolle, S, Ferlay, N, Martins Dos Santos, S, Putaud, JP, Timonen, H, Lampilahti, J, Asbach, C, Wolf, C, Kaminski, H, Altug, H, Hoffmann, B, Rich, DQ, Pandolfi, M, Harrison, RM, Hopke, PK, Petäjä, T, Alastuey, A & Querol, X 2023, 'Phenomenology of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distribution across urban Europe', Environment International, vol. 172, 107744. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.107744

TY - JOUR

T1 - Phenomenology of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distribution across urban Europe

AU - Trechera, Pedro

AU - Garcia-Marlès, Meritxell

AU - Liu, Xiansheng

AU - Reche, Cristina

AU - Pérez, Noemí

AU - Savadkoohi, Marjan

AU - Beddows, David

AU - Salma, Imre

AU - Vörösmarty, Máté

AU - Casans, Andrea

AU - Casquero-Vera, Juan Andrés

AU - Hueglin, Christoph

AU - Marchand, Nicolas

AU - Chazeau, Benjamin

AU - Gille, Grégory

AU - Kalkavouras, Panayiotis

AU - Mihalopoulos, Nikos

AU - Ondracek, Jakub

AU - Zikova, Nadia

AU - Niemi, Jarkko V.

AU - Manninen, Hanna E.

AU - Green, David C.

AU - Tremper, Anja H.

AU - Norman, Michael

AU - Vratolis, Stergios

AU - Eleftheriadis, Konstantinos

AU - Gómez-Moreno, Francisco J.

AU - Alonso-Blanco, Elisabeth

AU - Gerwig, Holger

AU - Wiedensohler, Alfred

AU - Weinhold, Kay

AU - Merkel, Maik

AU - Bastian, Susanne

AU - Petit, Jean Eudes

AU - Favez, Olivier

AU - Crumeyrolle, Suzanne

AU - Ferlay, Nicolas

AU - Martins Dos Santos, Sebastiao

AU - Putaud, Jean Philippe

AU - Timonen, Hilkka

AU - Lampilahti, Janne

AU - Asbach, Christof

AU - Wolf, Carmen

AU - Kaminski, Heinz

AU - Altug, Hicran

AU - Hoffmann, Barbara

AU - Rich, David Q.

AU - Pandolfi, Marco

AU - Harrison, Roy M.

AU - Hopke, Philip K.

AU - Petäjä, Tuukka

AU - Alastuey, Andrés

AU - Querol, Xavier

N1 - Funding Information: This study is supported by the RI-URBANS project (Research Infrastructures Services Reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial Areas, European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Green Deal, European Commission, under grant agreement No 101036245). The authors would like to thank ACTRIS (The Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure), especially the EBAS Data Centre, for providing datasets for the study. The authors would like to thank also the support from “Agencia Estatal de Investigación” from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and FEDER funds under the projects CAIAC (PID2019-108990RB-I00); and the Generalitat de Catalunya (AGAUR 2021 SGR00447) and the Direcció General de Territori. This study is partly funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, a partnership between UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and Imperial College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, UKHSA, or the Department of Health and Social Care. The work in Rochester, NY was funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority under contracts #59802 and 125993. This research is also partly supported by the Hungarian Research, Development and Innovation Office (grant no. K132254). We thank the Hessian Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment and Geology (HLNUG), Wiesbaden, Germany for providing concentrations of ancillary pollutants of urban background station at Darmstadt. The Stockholm traffic station (Hornsgatan) datasets were provided thanks to the nPETS project (grant agreement no. 954377) funded by the European Union (EU). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

PY - 2023/2

Y1 - 2023/2

N2 - The 2017–2019 hourly particle number size distributions (PNSD) from 26 sites in Europe and 1 in the US were evaluated focusing on 16 urban background (UB) and 6 traffic (TR) sites in the framework of Research Infrastructures services reinforcing air quality monitoring capacities in European URBAN & industrial areaS (RI-URBANS) project. The main objective was to describe the phenomenology of urban ultrafine particles (UFP) in Europe with a significant air quality focus. The varying lower size detection limits made it difficult to compare PN concentrations (PNC), particularly PN10-25, from different cities. PNCs follow a TR > UB > Suburban (SUB) order. PNC and Black Carbon (BC) progressively increase from Northern Europe to Southern Europe and from Western to Eastern Europe. At the UB sites, typical traffic rush hour PNC peaks are evident, many also showing midday-morning PNC peaks anti-correlated with BC. These peaks result from increased PN10-25, suggesting significant PNC contributions from nucleation, fumigation and shipping. Site types to be identified by daily and seasonal PNC and BC patterns are: (i) PNC mainly driven by traffic emissions, with marked correlations with BC on different time scales; (ii) marked midday/morning PNC peaks and a seasonal anti-correlation with PNC/BC; (iii) both traffic peaks and midday peaks without marked seasonal patterns. Groups (ii) and (iii) included cities with high insolation. PNC, especially PN25-800, was positively correlated with BC, NO2, CO and PM for several sites. The variable correlation of PNSD with different urban pollutants demonstrates that these do not reflect the variability of UFP in urban environments. Specific monitoring of PNSD is needed if nanoparticles and their associated health impacts are to be assessed. Implementation of the CEN-ACTRIS recommendations for PNSD measurements would provide comparable measurements, and measurements of <10 nm PNC are needed for full evaluation of the health effects of this size fraction.

AB - The 2017–2019 hourly particle number size distributions (PNSD) from 26 sites in Europe and 1 in the US were evaluated focusing on 16 urban background (UB) and 6 traffic (TR) sites in the framework of Research Infrastructures services reinforcing air quality monitoring capacities in European URBAN & industrial areaS (RI-URBANS) project. The main objective was to describe the phenomenology of urban ultrafine particles (UFP) in Europe with a significant air quality focus. The varying lower size detection limits made it difficult to compare PN concentrations (PNC), particularly PN10-25, from different cities. PNCs follow a TR > UB > Suburban (SUB) order. PNC and Black Carbon (BC) progressively increase from Northern Europe to Southern Europe and from Western to Eastern Europe. At the UB sites, typical traffic rush hour PNC peaks are evident, many also showing midday-morning PNC peaks anti-correlated with BC. These peaks result from increased PN10-25, suggesting significant PNC contributions from nucleation, fumigation and shipping. Site types to be identified by daily and seasonal PNC and BC patterns are: (i) PNC mainly driven by traffic emissions, with marked correlations with BC on different time scales; (ii) marked midday/morning PNC peaks and a seasonal anti-correlation with PNC/BC; (iii) both traffic peaks and midday peaks without marked seasonal patterns. Groups (ii) and (iii) included cities with high insolation. PNC, especially PN25-800, was positively correlated with BC, NO2, CO and PM for several sites. The variable correlation of PNSD with different urban pollutants demonstrates that these do not reflect the variability of UFP in urban environments. Specific monitoring of PNSD is needed if nanoparticles and their associated health impacts are to be assessed. Implementation of the CEN-ACTRIS recommendations for PNSD measurements would provide comparable measurements, and measurements of <10 nm PNC are needed for full evaluation of the health effects of this size fraction.

KW - Aerosols

KW - Air quality

KW - Atmospheric particulate matter

KW - Nanoparticles

KW - Particle number concentrations

KW - Urban environment

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U2 - 10.1016/j.envint.2023.107744

DO - 10.1016/j.envint.2023.107744

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85146561413

SN - 0160-4120

VL - 172

JO - Environment International

JF - Environment International

M1 - 107744

ER -

Phenomenology of ultrafine particle concentrations and size distribution across urban Europe

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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Projects

RI-URBANS: Research Infrastructures services reinforcing Air Quality Monitoring Capacities in European Urban & Industrial areaS

Cite this