Seasonal variation of urban carbonaceous aerosols in a typical city Nanjing in Yangtze River Delta, China

The Yangtze River Delta (YRD) is one of the regions with the most dynamic economy and severe atmospheric pollution in China. In order to characterize the particle features, especially the carbonaceous component in the YRD, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and 10 μm (PM10) samples in each season were collected in urban Nanjing, a typical city that locates in the west part of the YRD. The organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) was differentiated using the thermal optical reflectance method. The average concentrations of PM2.5, OC and EC during the study periods were observed to be 117.6, 13.8, and 5.3 μg/m3 respectively, with all the highest levels in winter. The mass fraction of the Total carbonaceous aerosol (TCA) in PM2.5 was estimated at 23% on average, lower than those reported for other cities in the YRD. The OC and EC correlated well in all the seasons, especially in spring and winter, implying that OC and EC were attributed to common emission sources. Good correlation was observed between OC and estimated K+ from biomass burning in the harvest season in autumn and summer, indicating biomass burning a significant source of carbonaceous aerosols. This could also be confirmed by the lower fraction of OC3 + OC4 in OC during autumn and summer. The secondary organic carbon (SOC) estimated by EC-tracer method was the highest in winter (7.3 μg/m3) followed by autumn (6.7 μg/m3), summer (3.7 μg/m3) and spring (2.0 μg/m3). However, the SOC/OC in winter was not as high as that in summer and autumn, implying the high concentration of OC in winter was probably due to the stable weather but not mainly caused by SOC formation. The high SOC/OC ratio in summer was attributed to stronger oxidation, which could be suggested by higher sulfur oxidation ratio (SOR).