The Chemical Nature of Individual Size-resolved Raindrops and Their Residual Particles Collected during High Atmospheric Loading for PM2.5

Although it is well known that rain plays an important role in capturing air pollutants, its quantitative evaluation has not been done enough. In this study, the effect of raindrop size on pollutant scavenging was investigated by clarifying the chemical nature of individual size-resolved raindrops a...

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Main Authors: Chang-Jin Ma, Koichiro Sera
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2017-09-01
Series:Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
Subjects:
Online Access:http://asianjae.org/_common/do.php?a=full&b=11&bidx=1457&aidx=18771
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author Chang-Jin Ma
Koichiro Sera
author_facet Chang-Jin Ma
Koichiro Sera
author_sort Chang-Jin Ma
collection DOAJ
description Although it is well known that rain plays an important role in capturing air pollutants, its quantitative evaluation has not been done enough. In this study, the effect of raindrop size on pollutant scavenging was investigated by clarifying the chemical nature of individual size-resolved raindrops and their residual particles. Raindrops as a function of their size were collected using the raindrop collector devised by our oneself in previous study (Ma et al., 2000) during high atmospheric loading for PM2.5. Elemental analyses of solid residues and individual residual particles in raindrops were subsequently analyzed by Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX), respectively. The raindrop number concentration (m-2 h-1) tended to drastically decrease as the drop size goes up. Particle scavenging rate, Rsca. (%), based on the actual measurement values were 38.7, 69.5, and 80.8% for the particles with 0.3-0.5, 0.5-1.0, and 1.0-2.0 μm diameter, respectively. S, Ca, Si, and Al ranked relatively high concentration in raindrops, especially small ones. Most of the element showed a continuous decrease in concentration with increasing raindrop diameter. The source profile by factor analysis for the components of residual particles indicated that the rainfall plays a valuable role in scavenging natural as well as artificial particles from the dirty atmosphere.
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spelling doaj.art-dc84151222784e40ab1dc16b03e056892023-09-02T18:39:02ZengSpringerAsian Journal of Atmospheric Environment1976-69122287-11602017-09-0111317618310.5572/ajae.2017.11.3.176The Chemical Nature of Individual Size-resolved Raindrops and Their Residual Particles Collected during High Atmospheric Loading for PM2.5Chang-Jin Ma0Koichiro Sera1Department of Environmental Science, Fukuoka Women’s University, Fukuoka 813-8529, JapanCyclotron Research Center, Iwate Medical University, Iwate 020-0173, JapanAlthough it is well known that rain plays an important role in capturing air pollutants, its quantitative evaluation has not been done enough. In this study, the effect of raindrop size on pollutant scavenging was investigated by clarifying the chemical nature of individual size-resolved raindrops and their residual particles. Raindrops as a function of their size were collected using the raindrop collector devised by our oneself in previous study (Ma et al., 2000) during high atmospheric loading for PM2.5. Elemental analyses of solid residues and individual residual particles in raindrops were subsequently analyzed by Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analysis (EDX), respectively. The raindrop number concentration (m-2 h-1) tended to drastically decrease as the drop size goes up. Particle scavenging rate, Rsca. (%), based on the actual measurement values were 38.7, 69.5, and 80.8% for the particles with 0.3-0.5, 0.5-1.0, and 1.0-2.0 μm diameter, respectively. S, Ca, Si, and Al ranked relatively high concentration in raindrops, especially small ones. Most of the element showed a continuous decrease in concentration with increasing raindrop diameter. The source profile by factor analysis for the components of residual particles indicated that the rainfall plays a valuable role in scavenging natural as well as artificial particles from the dirty atmosphere.http://asianjae.org/_common/do.php?a=full&b=11&bidx=1457&aidx=18771raindropwashoutpm2.5scavengingpixechemical nature
spellingShingle Chang-Jin Ma
Koichiro Sera
The Chemical Nature of Individual Size-resolved Raindrops and Their Residual Particles Collected during High Atmospheric Loading for PM2.5
Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
raindrop
washout
pm2.5
scavenging
pixe
chemical nature
title The Chemical Nature of Individual Size-resolved Raindrops and Their Residual Particles Collected during High Atmospheric Loading for PM2.5
title_full The Chemical Nature of Individual Size-resolved Raindrops and Their Residual Particles Collected during High Atmospheric Loading for PM2.5
title_fullStr The Chemical Nature of Individual Size-resolved Raindrops and Their Residual Particles Collected during High Atmospheric Loading for PM2.5
title_full_unstemmed The Chemical Nature of Individual Size-resolved Raindrops and Their Residual Particles Collected during High Atmospheric Loading for PM2.5
title_short The Chemical Nature of Individual Size-resolved Raindrops and Their Residual Particles Collected during High Atmospheric Loading for PM2.5
title_sort chemical nature of individual size resolved raindrops and their residual particles collected during high atmospheric loading for pm2 5
topic raindrop
washout
pm2.5
scavenging
pixe
chemical nature
url http://asianjae.org/_common/do.php?a=full&b=11&bidx=1457&aidx=18771
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