Niveles y evolución de las partículas ultrafinas del aerosol atmosférico en un entorno suburbano con influencia atlántica

Abstract

Recent studies observed that ultrafine particles (UFP) constitute the greater part of the atmospheric aerosol considering the number of particles per volume of sampled air. However, there is currently no air quality legislation regulating their levels in terms of air quality, so their study is of great interest as it will serve as a basis for possible future regulations. In this PhD Thesis, levels of atmospheric ultrafine particles, their granulometric distributions and their evolution are presented, identifying the events they may experience (nucleations or new particle formation events, growths and evaporations). The measurement of ultrafine particles is carried out with a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer, that measures the particle size distribution of particles whose diameters range between 10-300 nm. The study is done between 2013 and 2015 in a suburban area with Atlantic wheather influence close to A Coruña, at the facilities of the Institute of Environmental Sciences of the University of Coruña. The results presented in this PhD Thesis are the first obtained in this area. The QANAP-IUMA research group is part of the Spanish Network of Environmental Differential Mobility Analyzer (REDMAAS), which encompasses research groups in Spain that use this instrumentation. The network are created in 2010 to cooperate and exchange information. In addition, the results of ultrafine particles are correlated with meteorological parameters and with the chemical composition of the atmospheric particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than 10 μm (PM10) collected in four specific sampling campaigns. Finally, a source contribution study is carried out to establish the origin of the atmospheric particulate material