Organic composition of aerosol particulate matter during a haze episode in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abas, Mhd Radzi Bin; Rahman, Noorsaadah Abd.; Omar, Nasr Y. M.; Maah, Mohd Jamil; Samah, Azizan Abu; Orós, Daniel; Otto, Angelika; Simoneit, Bernd R.T.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosenv.2004.01.048

Cited by 100 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…This suggestion is additionally supported by the occurrence of dehydroabietic acid, a molecular marker for softwood burning [ Simoneit , 1999]. In that respect also the relatively high abundances of N‐bearing compounds in the sample are of interest, as their occurrence in aerosols has been inferred to indicate burning of nitrogenous biomass [ Bin Abas et al , 2004]. Also β ‐sitosterol, although present in all vegetation types and thus not source‐specific, is often used as an indicator for direct emission from plants during biomass burning processes [ Simoneit et al , 2004].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Geochemical and microbiological fingerprinting of airborne dust that fell in Canberra, Australia, in October 2002

Abed¹,

Beer

Hinrichs

et al. 2008

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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[1] During the night of 22-23 October 2002, a large amount of airborne dust fell with rain over Canberra, located some 200 km from Australia's east coast, and at an average altitude of 650 m. It is estimated that during that night about 6 g m À2 of aeolian dust fell. We have conducted a vast number of analyses to ''fingerprint'' some of the dust and used the following techniques: grain size analysis; scanning electron microscope imagery; major, trace, and rare earth elemental, plus Sr and Nd isotopic analyses; organic compound analyses with respective compound-specific isotope analyses; pollen extraction to identify the vegetation sources; and molecular cloning of 16S rRNA genes in order to identify dust bacterial composition. DNA analyses show that most obtained 16S rRNA sequences belong mainly to three groups: Proteobacteria (25%), Bacteriodetes (23%), and gram-positive bacteria (23%). In addition, we investigated the meteorological conditions that led to the dust mobilization and transport using model and satellite data. Grain sizes of the mineral dust show a bimodal distribution typical of proximal dust, rather than what is found over oceans, and the bimodal aspect of size distribution confirms wet deposition by rain droplets. The inorganic geochemistry points to a source along/near the Darling River in NW New South Wales, a region that is characteristically semiarid, and both the organic chemistry and palynoflora of the dust confirm the location of this source area. Meteorological reconstructions of the event again clearly identify the area near Bourke-Cobar as being the source of the dust. This study paves the way for determining the export of Australian airborne dust both in the oceans and other continents.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Geochemical and microbiological fingerprinting of airborne dust that fell in Canberra, Australia, in October 2002

Abed¹,

Beer

Hinrichs

et al. 2008

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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“…This approach considers two main principles: (1) that organic molecular markers are present in relatively high concentrations in emissions from a specific source and in lower concentrations in the remaining sources, and (2) that they react slowly enough in the atmosphere to be conserved during transport from the source to the observation/receptor site (Schauer et al, 1996;Lin et al, 2010). The use of organic molecular markers in the last decade has proven to be a powerful method to identify and attribute emission sources in urban areas (Alves et al, 2001;Fraser et al, 2003;Abas et al, 2004;Kalaitzoglou et al, 2004;Zheng et al, 2005;Feng et al, 2006;Huang et al, 2006;Li et al, 2006;Park et al, 2006;Alves et al, 2007;Chow et al, 2007;Ke et al, 2007;Stone et al, 2008;Amador-Muñoz et al, 2010;Yin et al, 2010;Pietrogrande et al, 2011;Perrone et al, 2012;Giri et al, 2013;Villalobos et al, 2015;Watson et al, 2015;Zheng et al, 2015). In spite of recent research interest on organic molecular markers for source apportionment, the application of this approach started in the 1980s (Simoneit, 1985(Simoneit, , 1986Eatough et al, 1989;Simoneit and Mazurek, 1989) and continued in the 1990s (Simoneit et al, 1990(Simoneit et al, , 1991Schauer et al, 1996;Simoneit, 1999;Schauer and Cass, 2000), especially with the development of organic source profiles for primary emission sources (Rogge et al, 1991…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organic composition and source apportionment of fine aerosol at Monterrey, Mexico, based on organic markers

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Primary emissions from anthropogenic and biogenic sources as well as secondary formation are responsible for the pollution levels of ambient air in major urban areas. These sources release fine particles into the air that negatively impact human health and the environment. Organic molecular markers, which are compounds that are unique to specific PM2.5 sources, can be utilized to identify the major emission sources in urban areas. In this study, 43 representative PM2.5 samples, for both daytime and nighttime periods, were built from individual samples collected in an urban site of the Monterrey metropolitan area (MMA) during the spring and fall of 2011 and 2012. The samples were analyzed for organic carbon, elemental carbon, and organic molecular markers. Several diagnostic tools were employed for the preliminary identification of emission sources. Organic compounds for eight compound classes were quantified. The n-alkanoic acids were the most abundant, followed by n-alkanes, wood smoke markers, and levoglucosan/alkenoic acids. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and hopanes were less abundant. The carbon preference index (0.7–2.6) for n-alkanes indicates a major contribution of anthropogenic and mixed sources during the fall and the spring, respectively. Hopanes levels confirmed the contribution from gasoline and diesel engines. In addition, the contribution of gasoline and diesel vehicle exhaust was confirmed and identified by the PAH concentrations in PM2.5. Diagnostic ratios of PAHs showed emissions from burning coal, wood, biomass, and other fossil fuels. The total PAHs and elemental carbon were correlated (r2 =  0.39–0.70) across the monitoring periods, reinforcing that motor vehicles are the major contributors of PAHs. Cholesterol levels remained constant during the spring and fall, showing evidence of the contribution of meat-cooking operations, while the isolated concentrations of levoglucosan suggested occasional biomass burning events. Finally, source attribution results obtained using the CMB (chemical mass balance) model indicate that emissions from motor vehicle exhausts are the most important, accounting for the 64 % of the PM2.5, followed by meat-cooking operations with 31 % The vegetative detritus and biomass burning had the smallest contribution (2.2 % of the PM2.5). To our knowledge, this is only the second study to explore the organic composition and source apportionment of fine organic aerosol based on molecular markers in Mexico and the first for the MMA. Particularly molecular marker were quantified by solvent extraction with dichloromethane, derivatization, and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC/MS).

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“…In view of the extensive potential impacts, a number of studies were carried out to characterize the resultant particulate pollutants from biomass burning in different parts of SEA like Brunei Darussalam [ Radojevic and Hassan , 1999; Muraleedharan and Radojevic , 2000; Muraleedharan et al , 2000], Malaysia [ Radzi Bin Abas et al , 2004a, 2004b] and Singapore [ Chee et al , 1997; Orlic et al , 1997; Balasubramanian et al , 1999, 2003]. However, most of the information reported in the literature comes from air quality monitoring stations in nations affected by regional haze and/or from limited aerosol research.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A study of the physical, chemical, and optical properties of ambient aerosol particles in Southeast Asia during hazy and nonhazy days

2006

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[1] Many Southeast Asian countries have been constantly plagued by recurring smoke haze episodes as a result of traditional slash-and-burn practices in agricultural areas to clear crop lands or uncontrolled forest fires. However, our current knowledge on the physiochemical and optical properties of ambient aerosols associated with regional haze phenomenon is still fairly limited. Therefore a comprehensive field study was carried out in Singapore from March 2001 to March 2002 under varying weather conditions to gain a better understanding of the characteristics. The physical (size distribution of mass and number concentrations), chemical (mass concentrations of chemical components: 14 ions, 24 metals, elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC)), and optical (light absorption (b ap ) and scattering (b sp ) by particles) characteristics of ambient aerosol particles were investigated. The results are reported separately for clear and hazy days by categorizing the days as clear or hazy on the basis of visibility data. It was observed that the average concentrations of PM 2.5 and most chemical components increased approximately by a factor of 2 on hazy days. Backward air trajectories together with the hot spot distributions in the region indicated that the degradation in Singapore's air quality on hazy days was attributable to large-scale forest fires in Sumatra. This visibility degradation was quantitatively measured on the basis of the light absorption and scattering by particles. As expected, scattering rather than absorption controlled atmospheric visibility, and PM 2.5 particles present on hazy days were more efficient at scattering light than those found on clear days.

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Organic composition of aerosol particulate matter during a haze episode in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Cited by 100 publications

References 45 publications

Geochemical and microbiological fingerprinting of airborne dust that fell in Canberra, Australia, in October 2002

Geochemical and microbiological fingerprinting of airborne dust that fell in Canberra, Australia, in October 2002

Organic composition and source apportionment of fine aerosol at Monterrey, Mexico, based on organic markers

A study of the physical, chemical, and optical properties of ambient aerosol particles in Southeast Asia during hazy and nonhazy days

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