Seasonal Characteristics of New Particle Formation and Growth in Urban Beijing

Abstract

Understanding the atmospheric new particle formation (NPF) process within the global range is important for revealing the budget of atmospheric aerosols and their impacts. We investigated the seasonal characteristics of NPF in the urban environment of Beijing. Aerosol size distributions down to ∼1 nm and H₂SO₄ concentration were measured during 2018-2019. The observed formation rate of 1.5 nm particles (<i>J</i>_1.5) is significantly higher than those in the clean environment, e.g., Hyytiälä, whereas the growth rate is not significantly different. Both <i>J</i>_1.5 and NPF frequency in urban Beijing show a clear seasonal variation with maxima in winter and minima in summer, while the observed growth rates are generally within the same range around the year. We show that ambient temperature is a governing factor driving the seasonal variation of <i>J</i>_1.5. In contrast, the condensation sink and the daily maximum H₂SO₄ concentration show no significant seasonal variation during the NPF periods. In all four seasons, condensation of H₂SO₄ and (H₂SO₄)<i>_n</i>(amine)<i>_n</i> clusters contributes significantly to the growth rates in the sub-3 nm size range, whereas it is less important for the observed growth rates of particles above 3 nm. Therefore, other species are always needed for the growth of larger particles.