Abstract
The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of very fine atmospheric particles (submicron particulate matter; PM1) on visibility deterioration. Taking into consideration not only their entirely different physio-chemical properties in comparison to a well-recognized PM10 but also the origin and a growing environmental awareness of PM1, the main research problem has been solved in few steps. At first, the chemical composition of PM1 was determined in two selected urban areas in Poland. Measurements of meteorological parameters, i.e., air temperature and humidity, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, wind speed, and visibility, were also conducted. The next step of the work was the analysis of (1) seasonal changes of the concentration of PM1 and its main components, (2) the influence of chemical components of PM1 on light extinction, and (3) the influence of PM1 and humidity on visibility. Hierarchical cluster analysis, correlation matrixes and a heat map, and classification and regression tree analysis were used. The light extinction coefficient is influenced mainly by coarse mass of PM, and PM1-bound ammonium nitrate, organic matter, and by Rayleigh scattering. The less important in the light extinction coefficient shaping has PM1-bound ammonium sulfate, elemental carbon, and soil. In this way, the secondary origin PM1 components were proved to most significantly influence the visibility. The obtained results confirmed the possibility of the use of statistical agglomeration techniques to identify ranges of variation of visibility, including independent variables adopted to analyses (meteorological conditions, chemical composition of PM1, etc.).
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Data availability
The data sets used and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Change history
04 August 2022
A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-22364-7
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Funding
The work was carried out within the project No. 2012/07/D/ST10/02895 and No. 2016/23/B/ST10/02789 financed by the National Science Centre Poland (NCN). This research was supported by the Institute of Environmental Engineering of WULS basic (statutory) research projects.
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GM and WR-K: project leader, experimental layout, manuscript preparation; GM, PR-K, AB: establishment and execution of experiment; GM, PR-K: data collection; GM, BS, EA, AW: data analysis and modeling; GM, WR-K, BS, EA, AB, AW, MR: manuscript editing. All the authors contributed to the final draft of the manuscript.
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Majewski, G., Rogula-Kozłowska, W., Szeląg, B. et al. New insights into submicron particles impact on visibility. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 87969–87981 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21781-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-21781-y