Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-26-2022
Department
Department of Physics
Abstract
The Mediterranean region is an important area for air pollution as it is the crossroads between three continents; therefore, the concentrations of atmospheric aerosol particles are influenced by emissions from Africa, Asia, and Europe. Here we concentrate on an eleven-month time series of the ambient concentration of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) between May 2018– March 2019 in Amman, Jordan. Such a dataset is unique in Jordan. The results show that the OC and EC annual mean concentrations in PM2.5 samples were 5.9 ± 2.8 µg m–3 and 1.7 ± 1.1 µg m–3, respectively. It was found that the majority of OC and EC concentrations were within the fine particle fraction (PM2.5). During sand and dust storm (SDS) episodes OC and EC concentrations were higher than the annual means; the mean values during these periods were about 9.6 ± 3.5 µg m–3 and 2.5 ± 1.2 µg m–3 in the PM2.5 samples. Based on this, the SDS episodes were identified to be responsible for an increased carbonaceous aerosol content as well as PM2.5 and PM10 content, which may have direct implications on human health. This study encourages us to perform more extensive measurements during a longer time period and to include an advanced chemical and physical characterization for urban aerosols in the urban atmosphere of Amman, which can be representative of other urban areas in the region.
Publication Title
Atmosphere
Recommended Citation
Hussein, T.,
Li, X.,
Bakri, Z.,
Alastuey, A.,
Arar, S.,
Al-Hunaiti, A.,
Viana, M.,
&
Petäjä, T.
(2022).
Organic and Elemental Carbon in the Urban Background in an Eastern Mediterranean City.
Atmosphere,
13(2).
http://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020197
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/15724
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13020197