EXPLOITING ADVANCED ATMOSPHERIC AEROSOL CHARACTERISATION TO DEVELOP CUTTING-EDGE APPROACHES FOR SOURCE APPORTIONMENT
type: CreativeWork
description: Atmospheric aerosols are very complex systems due to the huge variety of emission sources, size distributions, chemical properties, and transformation processes. Although the characterisation of atmospheric aerosols is still challenging, their study is essential since they have different impacts both at global and local scales. Among the various aerosol-related topics under investigation, the scientific community is thus putting much efforts into identifying and quantifying atmospheric aerosol emission sources (source apportionment). In this way, policymakers can develop effective control strategies to mitigate atmospheric aerosol adverse impacts. In recent years, in parallel to more traditional filter-based aerosol characterisation, advanced instrumentation has been developed to gain more insights on atmospheric aerosol properties (e.g., by increasing the sampling time resolution, developing size-segregated samplers, or identifying specific compounds that can be useful to trace specific sources). However, this detailed characterisation is still not properly exploited to the maximum extent in source apportionment models, since it is difficult to set up models which can deal with such sophisticated information together with more traditional data. This PhD work was thus aimed at developing and improving cutting-edge modelling approaches for source apportionment which can put to the maximum use advanced and comprehensive characterisation of atmospheric aerosol. Firstly, in the framework of the PRIN-2017 RHAPS project, the recently developed dispersion-normalised multi-time receptor modelling approach was explored to decouple the influence of atmospheric dilution from emission strength and atmospheric chemistry. The application of this approach is still one of the few in the literature, and it is the first at a Po Valley site (one of the most hot-spot polluted areas in Europe) where aerosol concentrations are so largely affected by atmospheric dilution. This study allow…
abstract: Atmospheric aerosols are very complex systems due to the huge variety of emission sources, size distributions, chemical properties, and transformation processes. Although the characterisation of atmospheric aerosols is still challenging, their study is essential since they have different impacts both at global and local scales. Among the various aerosol-related topics under investigation, the scientific community is thus putting much efforts into identifying and quantifying atmospheric aerosol emission sources (source apportionment). In this way, policymakers can develop effective control strategies to mitigate atmospheric aerosol adverse impacts. In recent years, in parallel to more traditional filter-based aerosol characterisation, advanced instrumentation has been developed to gain more insights on atmospheric aerosol properties (e.g., by increasing the sampling time resolution, developing size-segregated samplers, or identifying specific compounds that can be useful to trace specific sources). However, this detailed characterisation is still not properly exploited to the maximum extent in source apportionment models, since it is difficult to set up models which can deal with such sophisticated information together with more traditional data. This PhD work was thus aimed at developing and improving cutting-edge modelling approaches for source apportionment which can put to the maximum use advanced and comprehensive characterisation of atmospheric aerosol. Firstly, in the framework of the PRIN-2017 RHAPS project, the recently developed dispersion-normalised multi-time receptor modelling approach was explored to decouple the influence of atmospheric dilution from emission strength and atmospheric chemistry. The application of this approach is still one of the few in the literature, and it is the first at a Po Valley site (one of the most hot-spot polluted areas in Europe) where aerosol concentrations are so largely affected by atmospheric dilution. This study allow…
author: CROVA, FEDERICA
language: eng
keywords: Settore FIS/07 - Fisica Applicata(Beni Culturali, Ambientali, Biol.e Medicin)
date published: 2023-12-11
date modified: 2026-07-27T20:19:03Z
provider: Università degli Studi di Milano
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Università degli Studi di Milano

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/1018337

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.13130/crova-federica_phd2023-12-11