Publication Date:
2016-01-26
Description:
Ground-based observations of the polarization properties of aerosol particles using a polarization optical particle counter (POPC) were performed from October 2013 to January 2015 at a suburban site in the Kyushu area of Japan. By conducting an analysis of online measurements of aerosol composition, we investigated size-dependent polarization characteristics for three typical aerosol types (anthrop ogenic pollutants, dust, and sea salt). We found that, for supermicron particles, its depolarization ratio (DR, the fraction of s-polarized signal in the total back ward light scattering signal) generally increased with the particle size, and a threshold value of 0.1 could be used to identify the irsphericity. In summer, air pollution was less serious, and the DR of aerosol particles was relatively small due to the influence of spherical sea salt particles in high humidity conditions. This study indicated that air masses were transported across the Asian continent and contained not only anthropogenic pollutants, but also large amounts of non-spherical particles (i.e., dust), which could impact on the air quality in western Japan, especially in winter and spring. The variation of number fraction of spherical particles did not correlate with relative humidity averaged along the trajectories of air parcels, indicating the coexistence of hydrophobic substances (e.g., mineral dust and organics), although the sulfate and nitrate mass concentrations were high.
Electronic ISSN:
1680-7375
Topics:
Geosciences
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