Relative contributions of a major international airport activities and other urban sources to the particle number concentrations (PNCs) at a nearby monitoring site

Milad Pirhadi; Amirhosein Mousavi; Mohammad H Sowlat; Nicole A H Janssen; Flemming R Cassee; Constantinos Sioutas

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114027

Relative contributions of a major international airport activities and other urban sources to the particle number concentrations (PNCs) at a nearby monitoring site

Environ Pollut. 2020 May:260:114027. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114027. Epub 2020 Jan 25.

Authors

Milad Pirhadi¹, Amirhosein Mousavi¹, Mohammad H Sowlat¹, Nicole A H Janssen², Flemming R Cassee³, Constantinos Sioutas⁴

Affiliations

¹ University of Southern California, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, Netherlands.
³ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, Netherlands; Institute for Risk Assessment Studies, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.
⁴ University of Southern California, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: sioutas@usc.edu.

PMID: 32014744
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114027

Abstract

In this study, the positive matrix factorization (PMF) source apportionment model was employed to quantify the contributions of airport activities to particle number concentrations (PNCs) at Amsterdam Schiphol. Time-resolved particle number size distributions in parallel with the concentrations of auxiliary variables, including gaseous pollutants (NO_x and CO), black carbon, PM_2.5 mass, and number of arrivals/departures were measured for 32 sampling days over a 6-month period near Schiphol airport to be used in the model. PMF results revealed that airport activities, cumulatively, accounted for around 79.3% of PNCs and our model segregated them into three major groups: (i) aircraft departures, (ii) aircraft arrivals, and (iii) ground service equipment (GSE) (with some contributions of local road traffic, mostly from airport parking lots). Aircraft departures and aircraft arrivals showed mode diameters <20 nm and contributed, respectively, to 46.1% and 26.7% of PNCs. The factor GSE/local road traffic, with a mode diameter of around 60-80 nm, accounted for 6.5% of the PNCs. Road traffic related mainly to the surrounding freeways was characterized with a mode diameter of 30-40 nm; this factor contributed to 18.0% of PNCs although its absolute PNCs was comparable with that of areas heavily impacted by traffic emissions. Lastly, urban background with a mode diameter at 150-225 nm, had a minimal contribution (2.7%) to PNCs while dominating the particle volume/mass concentrations with a contribution of 58.2%. These findings illustrate the dominant role of the airport activities in ambient PNCs in the surrounding areas. More importantly, the quantification of the contributions of different airport activities to PNCs is a useful tool to better control and limit the increased PNCs near the airports that could adversely impact the health of the adjacent urban communities.

Keywords: Airport emissions; Aviation; Positive matrix factorization (PMF); Source apportionment; Traffic emissions.

MeSH terms

Air Pollutants*
Airports*
Environmental Monitoring*
Particle Size
Particulate Matter*
Soot
Vehicle Emissions

Substances

Air Pollutants
Particulate Matter
Soot
Vehicle Emissions