A. PIAZZALUNGA

In the framework of local and international projects, the Department of Physics of the University of Genoa is involved in the evaluation of the impact of on the urban air quality. Among the others, the Programme MED APICE project (http://www.apice-project.eu/) aims at the evaluation of the impact of harbor activities on urban air quality and...

We introduce a simple, fully automatic, multi-wavelength and non-destructive optical system, namely a Multi-Wavelength Absorbance Analyzer (MWAA), to measure off-line the light absorption in Particulate Matter (PM) collected on filters and hence to derive the black and brown carbon content in the PM. This gives the opportunity to measure in the...

An update of a methodology to extract both the size-segregated source apportionment of atmospheric aerosol and the size distribution of each detected element or compound, is presented. The approach is based on the parallel use of standard low-volume samplers to collect particulate matter (PM) and of an Optical Particle Counter (OPC). The...

Receptor and Chemical Transport Models are commonly used tools in source apportionment studies, even if different expertise is required. We describe an experiment using both approaches to apportion the PM2.5 (i.e., particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters below 2.5 m) sources in the city of Genoa (Italy). A sampling campaign was carried...

Sub-micron sized particles are of increasing concern owing to their effects on human health and on the environment. Up to now there are still very few studies on PM1 (i.e. particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter smaller than 1 mm) chemical characterisation; the sub-micron sized fraction is not under regulations although it is of interest...

In the Western Mediterranean Basin, frequently exposed to high levels of air pollutants, an important source of pollution which influence the emission, is the intensive ship traffic. The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC, EC) has started a long-term monitoring program along different years over the Mediterranean Sea based on...

In order to fill in the gap of observation in the Mediterranean basin and to obtain more information about sources of air pollutants and atmospheric dynamical and chemical mechanisms, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (JRC, EC) has started a long-term monitoring program over the Mediterranean Sea in collaboration with the...

Atmospheric aerosols in the PM10 and PM1 fractions have been sampled at the Global Atmospheric Watch station Mount Cimone, Italy (2165 m above mean sea level) for 3 months during summer 2004, and simultaneous size distributions have been derived by means of an optical particle counter. Samples have been analyzed by X-ray fluorescence, ion...

Carbonaceous aerosol is a major component of the urban PM. It mainly consists of organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) although a minor fraction of carbonate carbon could be also present. Elemental carbon is mainly found in the finer PM fractions (PM2.5 and PM1) and it is strongly light absorbing. When determined by optical methods, it...

In this paper, a new way to apportion the absorption coefficient (babs) of carbonaceous atmospheric aerosols starting from a multi-wavelength optical analysis is shown. This methodology can disentangle and quantify the contribution to total absorption of equivalent black carbon (EBC) emitted by wood burning (EBCWB) and fossil fuel (EBCFF) as...