Khan, Md Firoz; Latif, Mohd Talib; Amil, Norhaniza; Juneng, Liew; Mohamad, Noorlin; Nadzir, Mohd Shahrul Mohd; Hoque, Hossain Mohammed Syedul (2015). Characterization and source apportionment of particle number concentration at a semi-urban tropical environment. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH, 22(17), 13111-13126.

Abstract
Principal component analysis (PCA) and correlation have been used to study the variability of particle mass and particle number concentrations (PNC) in a tropical semi-urban environment. PNC and mass concentration (diameter in the range of 0.25-> 32.0 mu m) have been measured from 1 February to 26 February 2013 using an in situ Grimm aerosol sampler. We found that the 24-h average total suspended particulates (TSP), particulate matter a parts per thousand currency sign10 mu m (PM10), particulate matter a parts per thousand currency sign2.5 mu m (PM2.5) and particulate matter a parts per thousand currency sign1 mu m (PM1) were 14.37 +/- 4.43, 14.11 +/- 4.39, 12.53 +/- 4.13 and 10.53 +/- 3.98 mu g m(-3), respectively. PNC in the accumulation mode (< 500 nm) was the most abundant (at about 99 %). Five principal components (PCs) resulted from the PCA analysis where PC1 (43.8 % variance) predominates with PNC in the fine and sub-microme tre range. PC2, PC3, PC4 and PC5 explain 16.5, 12.4, 6.0 and 5.6 % of the variance to address the coarse, coarser, accumulation and giant fraction of PNC, respectively. Our particle distribution results show good agreement with the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) distribution.

DOI:
10.1007/s11356-015-4541-4

ISSN:
0944-1344