Seasonal trends in black carbon properties and co-pollutants in Mexico City

Abstract

Abstract. The Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) is a region that continues to grow in population and vehicular traffic as well as being the largest source of short lived climate pollutants (SLCP) in Latin America. The local city government has made significant progress in controlling some of these pollutants, i.e. ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO), but particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and black carbon (BC) have shown little response to mitigation strategies that have been in place for more than two decades. For the first time, extended measurements have been made of equivalent black carbon (eBC), derived from light absorption measurements made with a Photoacoustic Extinctiometer (PAX), over a 13 month period from March 2013 through March 2014. The daily trends in workday (Monday through Saturday) and Sunday eBC, PM2.5 and the co-pollutants CO, O3 and NOx are evaluated with respect to the three primary seasons in that region: rainy, cold-dry and warm-dry. The maximum values in all of the particle and gas concentrations were significantly larger (Student's t test, P< 0.05) during the dry periods than in the rainy season. The changes from rainy to dry seasons for eBC, PM2.5, CO, O3, and NOx were 8.8 to 13.1 μg m-3 (40%), 49 to 73 μg m-3 (40%), 2.5 to 3.8 ppm (40%), 73 to 100 ppb (30%) and 144 to 252 ppb (53%), respectively. The primary factors that lead to these large changes between the wet and dry seasons are the accelerated vertical mixing of boundary layer and free tropospheric air by the formation of clouds that dilutes the concentration of the SLCPs and the decreased actinic flux that reduces the production of ozone by photochemical reactions. A significant "weekend effect" was also identified, particularly the decrease in BC due to fewer large transport vehicles that are fueled by diesel that produces a large fraction of the BC emissions. The other co-pollutant concentrations are also significantly less on weekends except for O3 that shows no change in maximum values from workday to Sunday. As has been noted in previous studies, this lack of change is a result of the balancing effects of lower precursor gases, i.e. VOCs, offset by lower NOx that is an O3 inhibitor. A comparison of average, maximum values of eBC measured during the one year period of the current study with maximum values measured in short field campaigns in 2000 and 2006 show that there has been no significant change in the eBC emissions over a 14 year period. This suggests that the current pollution mitigation strategy will need to be evaluated to develop new methods than can decrease potentially toxic levels of this particulate pollutant.