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Characterization and source apportionment of particle number concentration at a semi-urban tropical environment

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Abstract

Principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation have been used to study the variability of particle mass and particle number concentrations (PNC) in a tropical semi-urban environment. PNC and mass concentration (diameter in the range of 0.25–>32.0 μm) have been measured from 1 February to 26 February 2013 using an in situ Grimm aerosol sampler. We found that the 24-h average total suspended particulates (TSP), particulate matter ≤10 μm (PM10), particulate matter ≤2.5 μm (PM2.5) and particulate matter ≤1 μm (PM1) were 14.37 ± 4.43, 14.11 ± 4.39, 12.53 ± 4.13 and 10.53 ± 3.98 μg m−3, respectively. PNC in the accumulation mode (<500 nm) was the most abundant (at about 99 %). Five principal components (PCs) resulted from the PCA analysis where PC1 (43.8 % variance) predominates with PNC in the fine and sub-microme tre range. PC2, PC3, PC4 and PC5 explain 16.5, 12.4, 6.0 and 5.6 % of the variance to address the coarse, coarser, accumulation and giant fraction of PNC, respectively. Our particle distribution results show good agreement with the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) distribution.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for the Research University Grant (DIP-2012-020). We also would like to thank the Ministry of Education for the Fundamental Research Grant (FRGS/1/2013/STWN01/UKM/02/2). Special thanks to Ms K Alexander and Dr. Rose Norman for proofreading this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Tropical Climate Change System (IKLIM), Institute for Climate Change, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

    Md Firoz Khan, Mohd Talib Latif, Liew Juneng, Mohd Shahrul Mohd Nadzir & Hossain Mohammed Syedul Hoque

  2. School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

    Mohd Talib Latif, Norhaniza Amil, Liew Juneng, Noorlin Mohamad, Mohd Shahrul Mohd Nadzir & Hossain Mohammed Syedul Hoque

  3. School of Industrial Technology (Environmental Division), Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Penang, Malaysia

    Norhaniza Amil

  4. School of Ocean Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia

    Noorlin Mohamad

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  1. Md Firoz Khan
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Correspondence to Md Firoz Khan.

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Khan, M.F., Latif, M.T., Amil, N. et al. Characterization and source apportionment of particle number concentration at a semi-urban tropical environment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 13111–13126 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-015-4541-4

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