Air ion concentrations in various urban outdoor environments
Atmospheric ions are produced by many natural and anthropogenic sources and their concentrations vary widely between different environments. There is very little information on their concentrations in different types of urban environments, how they compare across these environments and their dominant sources. In this study, we measured airborne concentrations of small ions, particles and net particle charge at 32 different outdoor sites in and around a major city in Australia and identified the main ion sources. Sites were classified into seven groups as follows: park, woodland, city centre, residential, freeway, power lines and power substation. Generally, parks were situated away from ion sources and represented the urban background value of about 270 ions cm-3. Median concentrations at all other groups were significantly higher than in the parks. We show that motor vehicles and power transmission systems are two major ion sources in urban areas. Power lines and substations constituted strong unipolar sources, while motor vehicle exhaust constituted strong bipolar sources. The small ion concentration in urban residential areas was about 960 cm-3. At sites where ion sources were co-located with particle sources, ion concentrations were inhibited due to the ion-particle attachment process. These results improved our understanding on air ion distribution and its interaction with particles in the urban outdoor environment.
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|Item Type:||Journal Article|
|Keywords:||Small Ions, Aerosols, Charged Particle, Urban Environment|
|Subjects:||Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > EARTH SCIENCES (040000) > ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES (040100) > Atmospheric Aerosols (040101)
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification > EARTH SCIENCES (040000) > ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES (040100) > Atmospheric Sciences not elsewhere classified (040199)
|Divisions:||Past > QUT Faculties & Divisions > Faculty of Science and Technology
Current > Institutes > Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
Past > Schools > Physics
|Copyright Owner:||Copyright 2010 Elsevier Ltd|
|Deposited On:||22 Nov 2010 02:28|
|Last Modified:||29 Feb 2012 14:25|
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