On the correlation of atmospheric aerosol components of mass size distributions in the larger region of a central European city

Mass size distributions of atmospheric aerosols have been sampled in the region of Vienna, a typical city in central Europe, at an urban and a rural site. The aerosol was collected simultaneously by cascade impactors. Two experiments which had a duration of 4 weeks each, were performed in August 1999 and in January/February 2000. Daily sampling periods were from 8:00 to 20:00, and from 20:00 to 8:00. An evaluation of the mass size distributions is represented in this paper. Emphasis is on the relationships of different aerosol components in a local and a regional context. The main results are as follows. The main components of the atmospheric aerosol are a fine aerosol, the accumulation aerosol, and a coarse aerosol. Specific coarse modes with modal diameters of 4.7 μm average and geometric standard deviations of about 3 occur at the urban and at the rural site, some times surprisingly strong. The fine and the coarse modes are very likely related to motor-car traffic. Usually the PM2.5 and PM10 aerosols are regionally strongly correlated. Occasionally, this correlation is effectively disturbed by local and/or regional emissions. Time series of correlation coefficients reveal an episodic character of the atmospheric aerosol. Periods of strong inter-site correlations of PM2.5 and PM10 indicate the dominance and the co-variation of the accumulation aerosols or the dominance and the co-variation of the coarse modes.