Size distribution and mixing state of black carbon particles during a heavy  air pollution episode in Shanghai

Gong, Xianda; Zhang, Ci; Chen, Hong; Nizkorodov, Sergey A.; Chen, Jianmin; Yang, Xin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5399-2016

Articles | Volume 16, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5399-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5399-2016

© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 16, issue 8

Research article

|

29 Apr 2016

Research article |

| 29 Apr 2016

Size distribution and mixing state of black carbon particles during a heavy air pollution episode in Shanghai

Xianda Gong, Ci Zhang, Hong Chen, Sergey A. Nizkorodov, Jianmin Chen, and Xin Yang

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Final revised paper (published on 29 Apr 2016)
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Preprint (discussion started on 16 Dec 2015)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC C11506: 'review', Anonymous Referee #1, 13 Jan 2016
- AC C13348: 'response to reviewer 1', Xin Yang, 28 Mar 2016
RC C12063: 'Review - Size distribution and mixing state of black carbon particles during a heavy air pollution episode in Shanghai', Anonymous Referee #2, 28 Jan 2016
- AC C13349: 'response to reviewer 2', Xin Yang, 28 Mar 2016
RC C12307: 'Review of "Size distribution and mixing state of black carbon particles during a heavy air pollution episode in Shanghai"', Anonymous Referee #3, 09 Feb 2016
- AC C13350: 'response to reviewer 3', Xin Yang, 28 Mar 2016

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Xin Yang on behalf of the Authors (28 Mar 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (31 Mar 2016) by Hang Su

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (14 Apr 2016)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The authors have addressed most of my points satisfactorily. Overall, I recommend this manuscript to be published in ACP after addressing minor comment listed below:

1) Point 2 in comment #3: Please add the value of d50 to the manuscript.
2) Point 3 in comment #3: Please include the response to the manuscript.
3) Comment #6: Please include the criteria for the identification of BBBC particles in the manuscript/Supplementary Information.
4) Comment #8: Further clarification for Figure 5b is required. Only the particle number fraction of pure BC particles is not included in this plot, which means pure BC particles contributed more than 50% of particle number in each size bin. However, Table 1 shows that the pure BC particles only accounted for 0.62% of total particle number measured by the SPAMS. Please explain the inconsistency.
5) Comment #10: Please add the response in the first paragraph to the manuscript.
6) Comment #11: Please add SO2 time series to Figure 6a. SO2 and aerosol sulphate concentrations were increasing on December 6, matching the observed increase of relative coating thickness measured by SP2. Please discuss.
7) Line 299-301: Although water-soluble K+ correlated reasonably well with the BBBC particles number, the BBBC particle number did not match the high concentration of K+ on December 9. Please explain.
8) Line 304-326: Are the diurnal cycles of BCOC-NOx and BCOC-SOx particles similar to that of KBC particles?
9) Line 340-349: Please specify the two instruments have different cut-off diameter in this paragraph.
10) Figure 3 and S9 are the same. Please check if the plot in Figure 3 is correct.
11) Figure 6: The meaning of relative area (y-axis) is unclear. Is it relative to total signals?

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ED: Reconsider after minor revisions (Editor review) (14 Apr 2016) by Hang Su

AR by Xin Yang on behalf of the Authors (19 Apr 2016) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (20 Apr 2016) by Hang Su

AR by Xin Yang on behalf of the Authors (20 Apr 2016)

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Short summary

In this study, we used a Single Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer and a Single Particle Soot Photometer to investigate the chemical and physical properties of black carbon (BC) aerosols during a regional air pollution episode in urban Shanghai. BC containing particles were mainly attributed to biomass burning and traffic emissions. We observed a group of highly aged traffic emitted particles with a relatively small BC core (~ 60–80 nm) and a very thick absolute coating thickness (~ 130–300 nm).