Secondary production of toxic nitropolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon during the Asian dust event: approached by model simulation
Abstract
Nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (NPAHs) are one of toxic compounds in the atmospheric particles. NPAHs are emitted in the atmosphere through the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal and diesel. Furthermore, it is produced by heterogeneous reactions such as the surface on the mineral dust aerosols. 1-nitoropyrene (1-NP) is one of the most abundant NPAHs and considered as a probable carcinogen. It is found that the production of 1-NP occurred during the heavy Asian dust event in Beijing and Japan. In this study, we estimated production of 1-NP by heterogeneous reactions by using model simulations in Northeast Asia. The model was three dimensional chemical transport model, Regional Air Quality Model for POPs version. The model performance was investigated the comparison with the observations. We focused on heavy Asian dust event observed in Beijing on 18-20 March 2010. Several sensitivity calculations are conducted under the existence of Asian dust in order to investigate the effect of relative humidity and photolysis. On 18-20 March 2010, primary 1-NP concentrations are about 50 fg/m3. Under the existence of the Asian dust, secondary production of 1-NP is estimated to 7 times against the concentrations of primary emission. Horizontal distributions indicate that decrease of Pyr and increase of 1-NP is significant around Beijing in this Asian dust event. Secondary production of 1-NP was large in this area as well as the downwind region such as the East China Sea. It is found that secondary production of 1-NP is minor in dessert region because of lower concentrations of Pyrene (Pyr). Distribution of secondary produced 1-NP varied with concentrations of Pyr, transport of Asian dust. Secondary production of 1-NP in March 2010 was larger than the primary emission of 1-NP, whereas the secondary production was smaller than those of the primary emission in April and May, 2011.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFM.A13B0262I
- Keywords:
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- 0305 Aerosols and particles;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0322 Constituent sources and sinks;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE