Investigating origin and transport of ultrafine particles in the vicinities of a major German airport

Julius Seidler1, Anke Nölscher1
1 Atmospheric Chemistry,

P 3.17 in Research Poster Kaleidoscope

Airports can be major sources of ultrafine particles (UFP).  
These type of particles are in the size range of 100 nm or less and can be either liquid or solid. When airborne, UFP can have multiple effects, i.e. changing cloud formation as condensation nuclei which ultimately affects climate, altering chemical processes in the atmosphere or health effects on living beings when being aspirated or uptaken. This raises the research question to what extent a large airport and the respective near-ground air traffic contributes to the overall atmospheric UFP mixture, and how this contribution can be correctly accounted for in terms of amount and transport by measurement and data processing techniques.

Accounting correctly for this contribution in terms of amount and transport is not trivial due to the large variability of sources for UFP. Hence, we plan to investigate the direct airport and air traffic emissions within its real world context of other natural and anthropogenic sources by resolving large portions of the ambient UFP mixture in the vicinities of a large airport.

We will design and establish two monitoring stations around Munich Airport. These stations will be equipped with measurement equipment for UFP (mobility particle size spectrometer (MPSS) , 8...800 nm at 3 min time resolution). Further the stations will contain analysers for the trace gases nitric oxides and ozone (chemiluminescence detector (CLD)  and dual cell UV photometer). The setup is completed by meteorological measurements (wind speed and direction, precipitation, solar radiation, humidity, pressure and temperature) to perform backward trajectory calculations of air streams originating from specific UFP sources.

Combining these findings with source appointment of UFP mixtures by means of a newly developed chemical analysis method will help us elucidating and further completing the image of UFP emissions related to airports.

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