A year-long study was conducted in Pinal County, Arizona to characterize fine and coarse particulate matter as a means of furthering our understanding of ambient concentrations and composition in rural, arid environments. Detailed measurement of ambient fine and coarse mass, ion, metal, and carbon concentrations at one-in-six day resolution was conducted at three sites from February 2009 to February 2010. Detailed organic carbon speciation was collected at 5-week resolution.
A series of samples representing native soil, agricultural soil, road dust, and cattle feed lot material was collected, resuspended in the laboratory, and analyzed to provide a chemical source profile for each soil type yielding insights into unique source signatures.
Observations within the chemical speciation data and subsequent modeling analysis show a strong impact from local sources at the Cowtown site where mass concentrations are highest. Source apportionment results confirm the significant impact from the cattle feedlot adjacent to the site. Chemical analysis of ambient particles and local feedlot material shows the presence of chemical marker species including phosphate which is unique to this source.
Fugitive dust is a significant contributor to ambient particulate matter concentrations at all monitoring locations. Seasonal observations show higher concentrations during tilling and harvesting indicating the large role agricultural sources play on particle concentrations in this area. Chemical characterization and modeling show that re-entrained road dust is a significant factor.
Fine particle modeling results indicate that concentrations are influenced significantly by motor vehicles including impacts from direct emissions including brake wear and indirect emissions including resuspended road dust. A significant fraction is also associated with crustal sources while about 5 g/m3 appears to be transported into the region from beyond the air shed.
Detailed analysis of the local monsoon season indicates that monsoon rains serve to clean the atmosphere resulting in a marked decrease in ambient coarse mass and resulted in a period where local coarse PM concentrations measured at all sites became more uniform. The monsoon season also featured localized high wind events which severely increased coarse PM concentrations and often caused exceedences of the PM National Ambient Air Quality Standard.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:RICE/oai:scholarship.rice.edu:1911/71271 |
| Date | 05 June 2013 |
| Creators | Clements, Andrea |
| Contributors | Griffin, Rob |
| Source Sets | Rice University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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