Aerosol particles at a high-altitude site on the Southeast Tibetan Plateau, China: Implications for pollution transport from South Asia

      Bulk aerosol samples were collected from 16 July 2008 to 26 July 2009 at Lulang, a high-altitude (>3300m above sea level) site on the southeast Tibetan Plateau (TP); objectives were to determine chemical characteristics of the aerosol and identify its major sources. We report aerosol (total suspended particulate, TSP) mass levels and the concentrations of selected elements, carbonaceous species, and water-soluble inorganic ions. Significant buildup of aerosol mass and chemical species (organic carbon, element carbon, nitrate, and sulfate) occurred during the premonsoon, while lower concentrations were observed during the monsoon. Seasonal variations in aerosol and chemical species were driven by precipitation scavenging and atmospheric circulation. Two kinds of high-aerosol episodes were observed: one was enriched with dust indicators (Fe and Ca2+), and the other was enhanced with organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC), SO42−, NO3−, and Fe. The TSP loadings during the latter were 3 to 6 times those on normal days. The greatest aerosol optical depths (National Centers for Environmental Protection/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis) occurred upwind, in eastern India and Bangladesh, and trajectory analysis indicates that air pollutants were transported from the southwest. Northwesterly winds brought high levels of natural emissions (Fe, Ca2+) and low levels of pollutants (SO42−, NO3−, K+, and EC); this was consistent with high aerosol optical depths over the western deserts and Gobi. Our work provides evidence that both geological and pollution aerosols from surrounding regions impact the aerosol population of the TP

Hygroscopic properties of aerosol particles at high relative humidity and their diurnal variations in the North China Plain

The hygroscopic properties of submicron aerosol particles were determined at a suburban site (Wuqing) in the North China Plain among a cluster of cities during the period 17 July to 12 August, 2009. A High Humidity Tandem Differential Mobility Analyser (HH-TDMA) instrument was applied to measure the hygroscopic growth factor (GF) at 90%, 95% and 98.5% relative humidity (RH) for particles with dry diameters between 50 and 250 nm. The probability distribution of GF (GF-PDF) averaged over the period shows a distinct bimodal pattern, namely, a dominant more-hygroscopic (MH) group and a smaller nearly-hydrophobic (NH) group. The MH group particles were highly hygroscopic, and their GF was relatively constant during the period with average values of 1.54 ± 0.02, 1.81 ± 0.04 and 2.45 ± 0.07 at 90%, 95% and 98.5% RH (D0 = 100 nm), respectively. The NH group particles grew very slightly when exposed to high RH, with GF values of 1.08 ± 0.02, 1.13 ± 0.06 and 1.24 ± 0.13 respectively at 90%, 95% and 98.5% RH (D0 = 100 nm). The hygroscopic growth behaviours at different RHs were well represented by a single-parameter Köhler model. Thus, the calculation of GF as a function of RH and dry diameter could be facilitated by an empirical parameterization of κ as function of dry diameter. A strong diurnal pattern in number fraction of different hygroscopic groups was observed. The average number fraction of NH particles during the day was about 8%, while during the nighttime fractions up to 20% were reached. Correspondingly, the state of mixing in terms of water uptake varied significantly during a day. Simulations using a particle-resolved aerosol box model (PartMC-MOSAIC) suggest that the diurnal variations of aerosol hygroscopicity and mixing state were mainly caused by the evolution of the atmospheric mixing layer. The shallow nocturnal boundary layer during the night facilitated the accumulation of freshly emitted carbonaceous particles (mainly hydrophobic) near the surface while in the morning turbulence entrained the more aged and more hygroscopic particles from aloft and diluted the NH particles near the surface resulting in a decrease in the fraction of NH particles

A new method to determine the mixing state of light absorbing carbonaceous using the measured aerosol optical properties and number size distributions

In this paper, the mixing state of light absorbing carbonaceous (LAC) was investigated with a two-parameter aerosol optical model and in situ aerosol measurements at a regional site in the North China Plain (NCP). A closure study between the hemispheric backscattering fraction (HBF) measured by an integrating nephelometer and that calculated with a modified Mie model was conducted. A new method was proposed to retrieve the ratio of the externally mixed LAC mass to the total mass of LAC (rext-LAC) based on the assumption that the ambient aerosol particles were externally mixed and consisted of a pure LAC material and a core-shell morphology in which the core is LAC and the shell is a less absorbing material. A Monte Carlo simulation was applied to estimate the overall influences of input parameters of the algorithm to the retrieved rext-LAC. The diurnal variation of rext-LAC was analyzed and the PartMC-MOSAIC model was used to simulate the variation of the aerosol mixing state. Results show that, for internally mixed particles, the assumption of core-shell mixture is more appropriate than that of homogenous mixture which has been widely used in aerosol optical calculations. A significant diurnal pattern of the retrieved rext-LAC was found, with high values during the daytime and low values at night. The consistency between the retrieved rext-LAC and the model results indicates that the diurnal variation of LAC mixing state is mainly caused by the diurnal evolution of the mixing layer

Size-resolved and bulk activation properties of aerosols in the North China Plain

Size-resolved and bulk activation properties of aerosols were measured at a regional/suburban site in the North China Plain (NCP), which is occasionally heavily polluted by anthropogenic aerosol particles and gases. A Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) closure study is conducted with bulk CCN number concentration (NCCN) and calculated CCN number concentration based on the aerosol number size distribution and size-resolved activation properties. The observed CCN number concentration (NCCN-obs) are higher than those observed in other locations than China, with average NCCN-obs of roughly 2000, 3000, 6000, 10 000 and 13 000 cm−3 at supersaturations of 0.056, 0.083, 0.17, 0.35 and 0.70%, respectively. An inferred critical dry diameter (Dm) is calculated based on the NCCN-obs and aerosol number size distribution assuming homogeneous chemical composition. The inferred cut-off diameters are in the ranges of 190–280, 160–260, 95–180, 65–120 and 50–100 nm at supersaturations of 0.056, 0.083, 0.17, 0.35 and 0.7%, with their mean values 230.1, 198.4, 128.4, 86.4 and 69.2 nm, respectively. Size-resolved activation measurements show that most of the 300 nm particles are activated at the investigated supersaturations, while almost no particles of 30 nm are activated even at the highest supersaturation of 0.72%. The activation ratio increases with increasing supersaturation and particle size. The slopes of the activation curves for ambient aerosols are not as steep as those observed in calibrations with ammonium sulfate suggesting that the observed aerosols is an external mixture of more hygroscopic and hydrophobic particles. The calculated CCN number concentrations (NCCN-calc) based on the size-resolved activation ratio and aerosol number size distribution correlate well with the NCCN-obs, and show an average overestimation of 19%. Sensitivity studies of the CCN closure show that the NCCN at each supersaturation is well predicted with the campaign average of size-resolved activation curves. These results indicate that the aerosol number size distribution is critical in the prediction of possible CCN. The CCN number concentration can be reliably estimated using time-averaged, size-resolved activation efficiencies without accounting for the temporal variations

Aerosol optical properties in the North China Plain during HaChi campaign: An in-situ optical closure study

The largest uncertainty in the estimation of climate forcing stems from atmospheric aerosols. In early spring and summer of 2009, two periods of in-situ measurements on aerosol physical and chemical properties were conducted within the HaChi (Haze in China) project at Wuqing, a town between Beijing and Tianjin in the North China Plain (NCP). Aerosol optical properties, including the scattering coefficient (σsp), the hemispheric back scattering coefficient (σbsp), the absorption coefficient (σap), as well as the single scattering albedo (ω), are presented. The diurnal and seasonal variations are analyzed together with meteorology and satellite data. The mean values of σsp, 550 nm of the dry aerosol in spring and summer are 280±253 and 379±251 Mm−1, respectively. The average σap for the two periods is respectively 47±38 and 43±27 Mm−1. The mean values of ω at the wavelength of 637 nm are 0.82±0.05 and 0.86±0.05 for spring and summer, respectively. The relative high levels of σsp and σbsp are representative of the regional aerosol pollution in the NCP. Pronounced diurnal cycle of $σsp, σap and ω are found, mainly influenced by the evolution of boundary layer and the accumulation of local emissions during nighttime. The pollutants transported from the southwest of the NCP are more significant than that from the two megacities, Beijing and Tianjin, in both spring and summer. An optical closure experiment is conducted to better understand the uncertainties of the measurements. Good correlations (R>0.98) are found between the values measured by the nephelometer and the values calculated with a modified Mie model. The Monte Carlo simulation shows an uncertainty of about 30 % for the calculations. Considering all possible uncertainties of measurements, calculated σsp and σbsp agree well with the measured values, indicating a stable performance of instruments and thus reliable aerosol optical data

Aerosol optical properties in the North China Plain during HaChi campaign: an in-situ optical closure study

The largest uncertainty in the estimation of climate forcing stems from atmospheric aerosols. In early spring and summer of 2009, two periods of in-situ measurements on aerosol physical and chemical properties were conducted within the HaChi (Haze in China) project at Wuqing, a town between Beijing and Tianjin in the North China Plain (NCP). Aerosol optical properties, including the scattering coefficient (σ<sub>sp</sub>), the hemispheric back scattering coefficient (σ<sub>bsp</sub>), the absorption coefficient (σ<sub>ap</sub>), as well as the single scattering albedo (ω), are presented. The diurnal and seasonal variations are analyzed together with meteorology and satellite data. The mean values of σ<sub>sp, 550 nm</sub> of the dry aerosol in spring and summer are 280±253 and 379±251 Mm<sup>−1</sup>, respectively. The average σ<sub>ap</sub> for the two periods is respectively 47±38 and 43±27 Mm<sup>−1</sup>. The mean values of ω at the wavelength of 637 nm are 0.82±0.05 and 0.86±0.05 for spring and summer, respectively. The relative high levels of σ<sub>sp</sub> and σ<sub>bsp</sub> are representative of the regional aerosol pollution in the NCP. Pronounced diurnal cycle of $σ<sub>sp</sub>, σ<sub>ap</sub> and ω are found, mainly influenced by the evolution of boundary layer and the accumulation of local emissions during nighttime. The pollutants transported from the southwest of the NCP are more significant than that from the two megacities, Beijing and Tianjin, in both spring and summer. An optical closure experiment is conducted to better understand the uncertainties of the measurements. Good correlations (<i>R</i>>0.98) are found between the values measured by the nephelometer and the values calculated with a modified Mie model. The Monte Carlo simulation shows an uncertainty of about 30 % for the calculations. Considering all possible uncertainties of measurements, calculated σ<sub>sp</sub> and σ<sub>bsp</sub> agree well with the measured values, indicating a stable performance of instruments and thus reliable aerosol optical data

Charmless Bs→PP,PV,VVB_s\to PP, PV, VV Decays Based on the six-quark Effective Hamiltonian with Strong Phase Effects II

We provide a systematic study of charmless $B_s \to PP, PV, VV$ decays ($P$ and $V$ denote pseudoscalar and vector mesons, respectively) based on an approximate six-quark operator effective Hamiltonian from QCD. The calculation of the relevant hard-scattering kernels is carried out, the resulting transition form factors are consistent with the results of QCD sum rule calculations. By taking into account important classes of power corrections involving "chirally-enhanced" terms and the vertex corrections as well as weak annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase, we present predictions for the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of $B_s$ decays into PP, PV and VV final states, and also for the corresponding polarization observables in VV final states. It is found that the weak annihilation contributions with non-trivial strong phase have remarkable effects on the observables in the color-suppressed and penguin-dominated decay modes. In addition, we discuss the SU(3) flavor symmetry and show that the symmetry relations are generally respected

Anomaly analysis of Hawking radiation from Kaluza-Klein black hole with squashed horizon

Considering gravitational and gauge anomalies at the horizon, a new method that to derive Hawking radiations from black holes has been developed by Wilczek et al. In this paper, we apply this method to non-rotating and rotating Kaluza-Klein black holes with squashed horizon, respectively. For the rotating case, we found that, after the dimensional reduction, an effective U(1) gauge field is generated by an angular isometry. The results show that the gauge current and energy-momentum tensor fluxes are exactly equivalent to Hawking radiation from the event horizon.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, the improved version, accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

Direct Measurements of the Branching Fractions for D0→K−e+νeD^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e and D0→π−e+νeD^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e and Determinations of the Form Factors f+K(0)f_{+}^{K}(0) and f+π(0)f^{\pi}_{+}(0)

The absolute branching fractions for the decays $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ are determined using $7584\pm 198 \pm 341$ singly tagged $\bar D^0$ sample from the data collected around 3.773 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC. In the system recoiling against the singly tagged $\bar D^0$ meson, $104.0\pm 10.9$ events for $D^0 \to K^-e ^+\nu_e$ and $9.0 \pm 3.6$ events for $D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e$ decays are observed. Those yield the absolute branching fractions to be $BF(D^0 \to K^-e^+\nu_e)=(3.82 \pm 0.40\pm 0.27)$ and $BF(D^0 \to \pi^-e^+\nu_e)=(0.33 \pm 0.13\pm 0.03)$. The vector form factors are determined to be $|f^K_+(0)| = 0.78 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.03$ and $|f^{\pi}_+(0)| = 0.73 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.06$. The ratio of the two form factors is measured to be $|f^{\pi}_+(0)/f^K_+(0)|= 0.93 \pm 0.19 \pm 0.07$.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure