The missing picture: How non–exhaust sources contribute to ultrafine particle emission

Ultrafine particles (UFP) are defined as “Particles sized about 100 nm in diameter or less”.

Adverse health and climate impacts of particles strongly depend on their size, making the understanding of UFP especially important.

The knowledge on number concentration, size distribution, metal content and structure of UFP from non-exhaust sources is very scarce, resulting in the absence of relevant legislations.

This project will characterize the properties of UFP from non-exhaust sources in road traffic in order to develop models across a range of spatial and temporal scales, thereby enabling us to quantify the health and climate impacts of non-exhaust UFP.Our previous studies indicate that non-exhaust sources emit a significant amount of particles, considerably modify their health and climate impacts.

Our advanced and unique combination of aerosol instrumentation allows us to measure the properties of non-exhaust UFP in laboratory and field stations.

The observations will enable us to develop new road traffic emission model with proper emission factors, which will also be implemented into a chemical transport model to provide information for the community about non-exhaust UFP.

The application quality of the road traffic emission model and chemical transport model will be assessed with the traffic data and emission inventory obtained in Stockholm and Istanbul, representing lightly and highly polluted urban areas.