Aerosol Size Distributions In Auckland.

Urban aerosol measurements in New Zealand have largely been conducted for regulatory purposes and therefore based on PMx metrics while other particle metrics such as size distributions, number concentration, surface area, scatter, etc. have received very little attention. Particle size distributions and particle number concentrations have been measured at various locations around Auckland for the first time during the past three to four years and have been brought together here to give a snapshot of Auckland's characteristic aerosol. Results show an aerosol typical of traffic dominated locations with an Aitken mode at most locations likely due to freshly emitted traffic exhaust. A large night-time accumulation mode is also evident in urban influenced air related to burning of wood for domestic heating. Particle formation events were observed in central Auckland under conditions that suggest regional formation but which cannot be confirmed in the absence of supporting data and which requires further investigation to test this hypothesis. These results are consistent with others from cities around the World except for the particle formation events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]