Multifractal analysis of atmospheric sub-micron particle data

•Theoretical aspects of Multifractal study of atmospheric particle data.•Multifractal spectra helped describe particle behavior.•Heterogeneous and homogeneous particle distributions were described.•Smooth and irregular particle distributions were described.•Hölder coefficient for describing atmospheric particle data.

Multifractal analysis was used to describe air pollution by sub-micrometric atmospheric particles. Atmospheric particle concentrations were studied from March 31 to April 21, 2006, as part of the MILAGRO campaign at the Jasso Station by means of an SMPS. Sixteen campaign days were selected to carry out the multifractal analysis of the experimental data through Singularity Spectra f(α). In this work, the roughness/smoothness feature of atmospheric particle distributions was studied by means of the Hölder exponent (α), which can be associated with the intensity of particle emissions through time and the randomness of the external emission sources. Multifractal analysis has been found to be a useful tool to establish intensity fluctuations of atmospheric data.