TY - JOUR
T1 - Contributions of aircraft arrivals and departures to ultrafine particle counts near Los Angeles International Airport
AU - Hsu, Hsiao Hsien
AU - Adamkiewicz, Gary
AU - Houseman, E. Andres
AU - Zarubiak, Darcy
AU - Spengler, John D.
AU - Levy, Jonathan I.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was funded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) through the Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction (PARTNER) under cooperative agreement nos. 09-C-NE-HU and 10-C-NE-BU . We thank Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) for providing us with access to the AQSAS data. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of LAWA or the FAA. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests.
PY - 2013/2/1
Y1 - 2013/2/1
N2 - Background: While commercial aircraft are known sources of ultrafine particulate matter (UFP), the relationship between airport activity and local real-time UFP concentrations has not been quantified. Understanding these associations will facilitate interpretation of the exposure and health risk implications of UFP related to aviation emissions. Objectives: We used time-resolved UFP data along with flight activity and meteorological information to determine the contributions of aircraft departures and arrivals to UFP concentrations. Methods: Aircraft flight activity and near-field continuous UFP concentrations (≧ 6. nm) were measured at five monitoring sites over a 42-day field campaign at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). We developed regression models of UFP concentrations as a function of time-lagged landing and take-off operations (LTO) activity, in the form of arrivals or departures weighted by engine-specific estimates of fuel consumption. Results: Our regression models demonstrate a strong association between departures and elevated total UFP concentrations at the end of the departure runway, with diminishing magnitude and time-lagged impacts with distance from the source. LTO activity contributed a median (95th, 99th percentile) UFP concentration of approximately 150,000particles/cm3 (2,000,000, 7,100,000) at a monitor at the end of the departure runway, versus 19,000particles/cm3 (80,000, 140,000), and 17,000particles/cm3 (50,000, 72,000) for monitors 250m and 500m further downwind, respectively. Conclusions: We demonstrated significant contributions from aircraft departure activities to UFP concentrations in close proximity to departure runways, with evidence of rapid plume evolution in the near field. Our methods can inform source attribution and interpretation of dispersion modeling outputs.
AB - Background: While commercial aircraft are known sources of ultrafine particulate matter (UFP), the relationship between airport activity and local real-time UFP concentrations has not been quantified. Understanding these associations will facilitate interpretation of the exposure and health risk implications of UFP related to aviation emissions. Objectives: We used time-resolved UFP data along with flight activity and meteorological information to determine the contributions of aircraft departures and arrivals to UFP concentrations. Methods: Aircraft flight activity and near-field continuous UFP concentrations (≧ 6. nm) were measured at five monitoring sites over a 42-day field campaign at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). We developed regression models of UFP concentrations as a function of time-lagged landing and take-off operations (LTO) activity, in the form of arrivals or departures weighted by engine-specific estimates of fuel consumption. Results: Our regression models demonstrate a strong association between departures and elevated total UFP concentrations at the end of the departure runway, with diminishing magnitude and time-lagged impacts with distance from the source. LTO activity contributed a median (95th, 99th percentile) UFP concentration of approximately 150,000particles/cm3 (2,000,000, 7,100,000) at a monitor at the end of the departure runway, versus 19,000particles/cm3 (80,000, 140,000), and 17,000particles/cm3 (50,000, 72,000) for monitors 250m and 500m further downwind, respectively. Conclusions: We demonstrated significant contributions from aircraft departure activities to UFP concentrations in close proximity to departure runways, with evidence of rapid plume evolution in the near field. Our methods can inform source attribution and interpretation of dispersion modeling outputs.
KW - Air quality
KW - Aircraft
KW - Ground measurements
KW - Regression
KW - Source attribution
KW - Ultrafine particulate matter
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84871724516&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.12.010
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.12.010
M3 - Article
C2 - 23280292
AN - SCOPUS:84871724516
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 444
SP - 347
EP - 355
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
ER -