Quantifying Contributions of Factors and Their Interactions to Aerosol Acidity with a Multiple-Linear-Regression-Based Framework: A Case Study in the Pearl River Delta, China

Autor: Hong Ling, Mingqi Deng, Qi Zhang, Lei Xu, Shuzhen Su, Xihua Li, Liming Yang, Jingying Mao, Shiguo Jia
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Atmosphere, Vol 15, Iss 2, p 172 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2073-4433
DOI: 10.3390/atmos15020172
Popis: This study presents an approach using multiple linear regression to quantify the impact of meteorological parameters and chemical species on aerosol pH variance in an urban setting in the Pearl River Delta, China. Additionally, it assesses the contributions of interactions among these factors to the variance in pH. The analysis successfully explains over 96% of the pH variance, attributing 85.8% to the original variables and 6.7% to bivariate interactions, with further contributions of 2.3% and 1.0% from trivariate and quadrivariate interactions, respectively. Our results highlight that meteorological factors, particularly temperature and humidity, are more influential than chemical components in affecting aerosol pH variance. Temperature alone accounts for 37.3% of the variance, while humidity contributes approximately 20%. On the chemical front, sulfate and ammonium are the most significant contributors, adding 14.3% and 9.1% to the pH variance, respectively. In the realm of bivariate interactions, the interplay between meteorological parameters and chemical components, especially the TNO3–RH pair, is exceptionally impactful, constituting 58.1% of the total contribution from interactions. In summary, this study illuminates the factors affecting aerosol pH variance and their interplay, suggesting the integration of statistical methods with thermodynamic models for enhanced understanding of aerosol acidity dynamics in the future.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals