Particle number size distributions were simultaneously measured at the Guangzhou (GZ) urban site (23.13 degrees N, 113.26 degrees E) and the Back-garden (BG) rural site (23.5 degrees N, 113.03 degrees E) in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region in July, 2006. It provided new findings into the evolution of particle number size distribution and new particle formation (NPF) in two different environments. Number concentration of particles (20 nm-10 mu m diameter) at GZ was about 70% higher than at BG and significantly affected by traffic emission. However, number concentrations of the regional aerosols (100-660 nm) were (6 +/- 3) x 10(3) cm(-3) at both sites. At BG, the diurnal variation of particle number size distributions showed an obvious particle growth process beginning at about 9:00 (LT), probably caused by NPF. In contrast, particle number concentrations in the size rages of 20-45 nm, 45-100 nm, and 100-660 nm showed similar trends with two main peaks at about 12:00 (LT) and 19:00 (LT) at GZ. NPF events were observed at both sites, but the occurrence frequency at GZ was about 50% lower than at BG. Regional NPF events at both sites probably in the same air mass were simultaneously observed with similar growth rates, concentrations and production rates of the condensable vapors, and condensational sinks on July 6. On the whole, deceasing traffic emission will improve air quality efficiently in the aspect of particle number concentration and fine particulate pollution in the summer of PRD should be controlled in a regional scale, especially with stagnant air mass from South China Sea. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

To assess the primary and secondary sources of fine organic aerosols after the aggressive implementation of air pollution controls during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, 12 h PM2.5 values were measured at an urban site at Peking University (PKU) and an upwind rural site at Yufa during the CAREBEIJING-2008 (Campaigns of Air quality REsearch in BEIJING and surrounding region) summer field campaign. The average PM2.5 concentrations were 72.5 +/- 43.6 mu g m(-3) and 64.3 +/- 36.2 mu g m(-3) (average +/- standard deviation, below as the same) at PKU and Yufa, respectively, showing the lowest concentrations in recent years. Combining the results from a CMB (chemical mass balance) model and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) tracer-yield model, five primary and four secondary fine organic aerosol sources were compared with the results from previous studies in Beijing. The relative contribution of mobile sources to PM2.5 concentrations was increased in 2008, with diesel engines contributing 16.2 +/- 5.9% and 14.5 +/- 4.1% and gasoline vehicles contributing 10.3 +/- 8.7% and 7.9 +/- 6.2% to organic carbon (OC) at PKU and Yufa, respectively. Due to the implementation of emission controls, the absolute OC concentrations from primary sources were reduced during the Olympics, and the contributions from secondary formation of OC represented a larger relative source of fine organic aerosols. Compared with the non-controlled period prior to the Olympics, primary vehicle contributions were reduced by 30% at the urban site and 24% at the rural site. The reductions in coal combustion contributions were 57% at PKU and 7% at Yufa. Our results demonstrate that the emission control measures implemented in 2008 significantly alleviated the primary organic particle pollution in and around Beijing. However, additional studies are needed to provide a more comprehensive assessment of the emission control effectiveness on SOA formation.