Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298

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Atmospheric Environment
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/atmosenv

Influence of surface and subsidence thermal inversion on PM2.5 and

black carbon concentration
E. Gramsch a, *, D. Ca

ceres a, P. Oyola b, F. Reyes b, Y. Va

squez b, M.A. Rubio c, G. Sa

nchez d
a
Department of Physics, University of Santiago, Avda. Ecuador 3493, Santiago, Chile
b
Mario Molina Center, Santiago, Chile
c
Faculty of Chemistry, University of Santiago, Santiago, Chile
d
Department of Mathematics, University of Santiago, Santiago, Chile

h i g h l i g h t s

PM2.5 and black carbon are always higher on days with temperature inversion.

Surface inversion influences the morning PM2.5.

Subsidence inversion influences PM2.5 during the whole day.

No correlation was found between the strength of the inversion and black carbon.

Temperature measurements as function of height are needed to correlate inversion and BC or PM2.5.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A study of particulate matter and temperature in the atmosphere in several places in Chile has been
Received 2 June 2014 carried out in three different years with the objective of determining a common pattern of the influence
Received in revised form of thermal inversions on PM2.5 and black carbon. Temperature measurements were used to separate days
23 August 2014
with and without inversions. In all sites it was found that the days with thermal inversions had higher
Accepted 26 August 2014
black carbon or PM2.5 than days without inversions. In the rural site, black carbon was 57% higher during
Available online 27 August 2014
inversion days. In the downtown Santiago site the PM2.5 was 35% higher during inversion days. At the
western Santiago site it was possible to separate the days into three categories; only surface, surface and
Keywords:
Thermal inversion
subsidence, and no thermal inversion. In days with both types of inversion, PM2.5 was 84% higher than
Black carbon days without any type of inversion. During days with only surface inversion, PM2.5 was higher only
PM2.5 during the morning and the average PM2.5 was only 14% higher. Although during inversion days the
concentrations were higher, it was not possible to find a significant correlation between the strength or
intensity of the inversion with black carbon or PM2.5 in the sites without temperature measurements as
function of height. However, when this data is available, a moderate correlation is found, indicating that
the complete vertical temperature profile is needed in order to find a relationship between those
variables.
© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction hills restrict wind speed and horizontal transport of pollutants. In

The valley in which Santiago de Chile is located has the Andes
Mountains on the east and the coastal mountain range on the west.
The area of the valley floor is approximately 55  30 km, with
several hills in between and two rivers. The city has 6,000,000
inhabitants and most of the economic activity of the country is
located within its limits. In Santiago de Chile, during winter, the
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: egramsch@gmail.com, egramsch@hotmail.com (E. Gramsch).
addition, there are frequent temperature inversions that lead to
stable atmospheric conditions which constrain vertical airflow.
Thus, air quality in Santiago de Chile is quite poor, especially during
winter (Moreno et al., 2010; Gramsch et al., 2006; Koutrakis et al.,
2005). It is well known that the height of the mixing layer is crit-
ical to the vertical dispersion of air pollutants because they deter-
mine and limit the rate and the range of dispersion of volatile
substances that are formed or emitted near the ground (Emeis et al.,
2004; Schaefer et al., December 2006). Therefore, the worst
pollution episodes occur during winter when there are strong

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2014.08.066
1352-2310/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 E. Gramsch et al. / Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298
temperature inversions. These weather conditions help trapping of
pollutants below the inversion cap leading to PM10 and PM2.5
concentrations that are many times higher the WHO standards. In
such places, dispersion and dilution through vertical mixing is
essential in reducing air pollution concentrations (Wallace and
Kanaroglou, 2009).
The meteorological conditions in the central area of Chile are
dominated by the subtropical anticyclone of the southeastern Pa-
cific (Mun ~ oz and Undurraga, 2009; Escribano et al., 2014), which
create a permanent subsidence inversion in the lower troposphere.
As a consequence, during winter, there is a prevalence of clear days
with low wind speeds and large temperature variations during the
day. In addition to this large-scale state, there are frequent low
pressure conditions propagating from the coast that strengthen the
subsidence inversion. In addition, there are frequent surface in-
versions at night and early morning that constrain even more the
vertical airflow. The consequences of these meteorological condi-
tions are that the highest peaks of PM10 and PM2.5 are observed
during the night and early morning.
It is also well known that high PM2.5 levels in the air are harmful
to health, either increasing mortality rate (Dockery et al., 1997),
increasing respiratory illness (Ilabaca et al., 1999), increasing the
number of emergency visits to the hospital (Cakmak et al., 2009),
etc. Recently, several studies have linked the occurrence of tem-
perature inversions to health effects. For instance, in Oman, the
monthly mean number of emergency department visits (Abdul-
Wahab et al., 2005) was linked to the number of inversion days.
In Hamilton (Wallace et al., 2010), Ontario, Canada, a cross-
sectional association between inversions and airway inflamma-
tion, which was measured by sputum cell counts, was found among
674 residents with asthma, however they found no associations
with individual pollutants. A study in the winter season in Salt lake
County, Utah (Beard et al., 2012), found an association between
inversions, included prolonged ones and emergency visits to a
hospital for asthma.
A better understanding of the relationship between thermal
inversions and the concentration of contaminants may help un-
derstand its effect on the health of population and may also help
models that attempt to predict PM2.5. In this work, the relationship
between the type of inversion and concentration of PM2.5 and black
carbon is studied.
2. Materials and methods
Three data sets were obtained in different intervals of time and
places in order to study the relationship between thermal inversion
and concentration of pollutants.
2.1. Measuring sites
During winter of 2004, temperature profiles up to 10,000 m
were measured from commercial aircraft departing from the main
airport in Santiago de Chile. Data were retrieved from MADIS
(Meteorological Assimilation Data Ingest System (http://
madis.noaa.gov/and l, March 2014)) from NOAA for the months of
June, July and August. PM2.5 concentrations were measured in one
of the stations of the Macam Network (SINCA, March 2014) that is
closest to the airport (Pudahuel), which belongs to the Ministry of
the Environment. Fine particle mass, PM2.5 was measured with a
Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance (TEOM) recording 1 h
average measurements.
In winter of 2005 temperature was measured in San Cristobal
Hill located in downtown Santiago during the months of May and
June. Temperature data was collected every 2 min using Hobo
temperature loggers at the base, at the top and at two intermediate
291
sites on the hill. PM2.5 data was measured in Parque O'Higgins
station of the Macam Network (SINCA, March 2014). Fine particle
mass was measured every hour with a Tapered Element Oscillating
Microbalance (TEOM).
In winter of 2011 temperature was measured in a rural site in a
hill from May 4 until June 4, 2011. Temperature data was collected
every 3 min using Hobo temperature loggers in the hill at three
heights. Black carbon (BC) was measured at the base of the hill with
an optical monitor built at the University of Santiago (Gramsch
~ ihue, 90 km
et al., 2004). The site is located in a small town, Don
south of Santiago.
2.2. Temperature inversion
In meteorology it is generally considered that dry air (mainly
oxygen, nitrogen, argon and carbon dioxide), behaves as an ideal
gas. Therefore, as it is known, the equation of state describing an
ideal gas is (Clapeyron, 1834):
PV ¼ Ra T (1)
Where V is the specific volume, P is the pressure, T the temperature
and Ra is the gas constant. The air density depends on both the
temperature and the pressure through the equation of state and
also decreases with increasing altitude. In order to establish a
common reference for temperature pressure and density, the In-
ternational Organization for Standardization (ISO) (International
Organization), developed a model, “International Standard Atmo-
sphere”, ISA (Standard Atmosphere, 1975), of how these parameters
of the Earth's atmosphere change over a wide range of altitudes or
elevations. The model was developed from atmospheric measure-
ments that were averaged and curve fit to produce the given
equations (http://www.grc.nasa). The model assumes that the
pressure and temperature change only with altitude. The model
shown below was developed in the early sixties and is updated
every few years to include changes in the atmosphere. The model
has three zones with separate curve fits for the troposphere, the
lower stratosphere, and the upper stratosphere. The troposphere
runs from the surface of the Earth to 11,000 m and the temperature
decreases linearly and the pressure decreases exponentially. The
model developed for the troposphere is shown below:
Fig. 1. Temperature measured at the bottom and middle of the hill in Don ~ ihue in
winter of 2011. The shaded part shows the intensity of the inversion for May 15, 2011.
292 E. Gramsch et al. / Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298

~ ihue during May and June separated according to inversion and non-inversion days. a) temperature, b) pressure, c) wind speed, d) frequency
Fig. 2. Meteorological variables in Don
wind rose between 7 and 12 pm.

There are several types of inversions that can occur in a region

and its influence on pollution may be different. In the central part of
T ¼ 15:04  0:00649  h (2) Chile there is a permanent subtropical anticyclone of the Pacific
that regulates atmospheric circulation in Santiago basin. The
 5:256 heating of the air by compression as it descends coupled with the
T þ 273:1 cold surface air from the Pacific Ocean generates a permanent
p ¼ 101:29 (3)
288:08 thermal inversion with a base around 600 m mean sea level (msl),

Where the temperature T, is given in Celsius degrees, the pressure

in kPa and h is the altitude in meters. Temperature inversion occurs
when this pattern changes and the temperature increases with
altitude (Glickman, 2000). The bottom of the inversion is the height
of the air layer where the temperature begins to increase with
increasing altitude. The top of the inversion is the height where
temperature returns to the normal pattern.

Table 1
Comparison of meteorological variables for days with and without thermal inversion
~ ihue.
in Don

Parameter Inversion Non-inversion Units


Avg. temperature (all day) 9.2 10.1 C

Avg. temperature (1e10 am.) 3.6 7.1 C
Avg. relative humidity (all day) 72.1 75.0 %
Avg. relative humidity (1e10 am.) 84.6 83.7 %
Avg. wind speed (all day) 0.63 0.73 m/s
Avg. Wind Speed (1e10 am) 0.58 0.78 m/s
Avg. pressure (all day) 977.4 978.6 mb
Avg. pressure (1e10 am) 977.7 978.2 mb
Fig. 3. Average black carbon concentration in Don ~ ihue for days with and without
Wind direction (most frequent) 260 250 deg.
thermal inversion. BC concentration is 57% higher on days with thermal inversion.
 E. Gramsch et al. / Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298
Fig. 4. (a) Correlation coefficient between daily average black carbon and the intensity of the inversion for that day. Dependence of 1-h black carbon on (b) wind speed, (c)
temperature and (d) relative humidity in Don~ ihue.
top at 1200 msl and a positive thermal gradient of 6  C. The high
humidity content of the marine air favors the formation of strato-
cumulus that remains near to the shore because the coastal
mountain range prevents its advance to the interior. This process
regulates the permanent subsidence inversion layer in the lower
troposphere. The height of the inversion varies with the season, in
summer the bottom of the inversion is located at 1e2 km height,
during winter, its elevation can be as low as 300 m over the surface
of the earth. Another very common type of inversion is generated
by cooling of the surface on clear nights. The surface inversion is
very common in the central part of Chile and it is usually coupled
with very low wind speeds. This type of inversion usually has the
bottom at the ground and the top is only 200e400 m height. In
Santiago, the surface inversion breaks at noon time. Advective
temperature inversions (Mun ~ oz and Undurraga, 2009), in which
cold breeze enters from the sea are not very common in this part of
Chile because the coastal mountain range prevents its arrival.
3. Results
~ ihue 2011
3.1. Don
Temperature monitors were set up at a hill near the town of
Don~ ihue at three different altitudes, base of the hill (421 m mean
sea level, msl), mid of the hill (561 msl) and top of the hill (606 msl).
The temperature at the top of the hill could not be used (606 msl)
because the instrument was lost. Simultaneously, black carbon was
measured at a school in Don ~ ihue (34130 25.8400 , 70 57040.5600 ),
about 370 m south west from the base of the hill. Don ~ ihue is a small
rural town with about 16,000 inhabitants whose main economic
activity is agriculture and the average income is not very high. In
293
winter, during the day, temperatures vary between 5 and 25  C, but
at night and early morning temperatures may drop down to 2e4  C
below zero. Most people use wood as the main source of heating,
because it is obtained free or at very low cost and the stoves are
usually used in the evening. This heating routine has the conse-
quence that pollution increases during winter nights.
In Don ~ ihue, the days were classified according to the tempera-
ture behavior. Days with temperature inversion conditions were
defined as those in which the temperature at the bottom of the hill
was lower than the temperature at the middle of the hill for at least
1 h in the morning. The intensity of the inversion was calculated as
the temperature difference between the middle and the bottom of
the hill multiplied by the time. Fig. 1 shows one day with temper-
ature inversion (May 15) and two days without inversion (May 16
and 17). The shaded area corresponds to the intensity of the
inversion. It was found that all inversions ended around 11 or 12
AM, the longest inversion lasted 20 h, but the average was 10.7 h.
It has to be noted that when there is thermal inversion, there are
several other meteorological variables that change accordingly. The
pressure is lower, the wind speed is lower and humidity is lower
than in days without inversion. All these variables have an influ-
ence on the BC concentration and each variable changes at different
hours of the day. Fig. 2 shows the temperature, pressure, wind
speed and direction separated for days with and without inversion.
As expected, temperature is lower when there are thermal inver-
sion conditions. But the decrease in temperature occurs at night
and early morning hours. During the afternoon, the temperature on
inversion days is higher. Higher temperatures during the afternoon
are associated with clear days in which the sun heats the surface;
this fact is an indication that temperature inversion conditions
occurs mostly on clear days. The pressure shows a very clear
294 E. Gramsch et al. / Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298

Fig. 5. Meteorological variables in downtown Santiago during May and June 2005 separated according to inversion and non-inversion days. (a) temperature, (b) relative humidity,
(c) wind speed, (d) frequency wind rose only between 7 and 12 pm.

difference between days with and without temperature inversions, be seen that the direction of the wind does not show a significant
being lower all day when there is temperature inversion. Table 1 difference between inversion and non-inversion days.
shows a comparison of several meteorological variables for days As expected, during days with temperature inversion condi-
with and without inversion condition in Don ~ ihue. tions, an increase in pollution is observed. This increase is seen in
The relative humidity usually has an inverse relationship with the black carbon measurements. Fig. 3 shows the black carbon
temperature, but, in this case, only there is a small change in the concentration for days with and without inversion for the months
morning (Table 1) only. On inversion days, when the temperature is
lower, the relative humidity is almost the same as during non-
inversion days. The wind speed also presents a small difference
between days with and without inversion.
As shown in Fig. 2c, the wind speed is lower at night during
inversion days than days without temperature inversion, while
during the day, the wind speed is similar for both types of days. The
slightly lower wind speed during inversion days inhibits the
dispersion of contaminants, increasing pollution. Fig. 2d shows the
frequency wind rose for inversion and non-inversion days between
9 pm and 6 am, i.e. when the temperature inversion occurs. It can

Table 2
Comparison of meteorological variables for days with and without thermal inversion
in downtown Santiago.

Parameter Inversion Non-inversion Units


Avg. temperature (all day) 11.6 11.4 C

Avg. temperature (1e10 am.) 8.7 9.7 C
Avg. relative humidity (all day) 80.2 83.1 %
Avg. relative humidity (1e10 am.) 89.4 89.9 %
Avg. Wind Speed (all day) 0.83 0.87 m/s
Avg. Wind Speed (1e10 am) 0.62 0.79 m/s
Fig. 6. Average PM2.5 in downtown Santiago for days with and without thermal
Wind direction (most frequent) 110 100 deg.
inversion. PM2.5 is 35% higher on days with thermal inversion.
 E. Gramsch et al. / Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298 295

Fig. 7. (a) Correlation coefficient between daily average PM2.5 and the intensity of the inversion. (b) Dependence of 1-h PM2.5 on wind speed in downtown Santiago.

of May and June 2011 in Don ~ ihue. When there is thermal inversion, topography, Don ~ ihue is surrounded by hills and the maximum
the BC concentration is 57% higher than days without inversion. wind speed in winter is about 2.5 m/s, while in Masterton, New
This large difference highlights the influence of thermal inversion Zealand (Trompetter et al., 2010) the maximum wind speed is about
conditions on pollution. At night, the increase in BC during inver- 14 m/s. From these data, it seems clear that it is not possible to a
sion days is larger than the increase at other hours of the day, which find high correlation between any pair of variables. This is an
is consistent with lower wind speeds. indication that, although BC is higher in days with temperature
Because there is a clear influence of the thermal inversion inversion conditions, there other variables that determine how BC
conditions on BC concentrations, there should be a correlation changes.
between thermal inversion and BC. The intensity of the inversion,
i.e. the area enclosed by the temperature curves (Fig. 1) has been 3.2. Downtown Santiago 2005
calculated for all days. A plot of this parameter versus the daily
average BC concentration is shown in Fig. 4a, but as it can be seen Temperature monitors were placed at a hill (San Cristobal) in
there is negligible correlation (Pearson and June, 1895) between downtown Santiago the year 2005 at four different heights, base of
both variables. Similarly, the correlation between the intensity of the hill (590 m mean sea level, msl), site two (675 msl), site three
the inversion and BC during the night hours is very low (r2 ¼ 0.128). (760 msl) and top of the hill (846 msl). Measurements started May
The correlation between the strength of the inversion (maximum 15 and ended June 30. Simultaneously, PM2.5 was measured at the
temperature difference) and BC is also low (r2 ¼ 0.032). The hourly Parque O'Higgins (SINCA, March 2014) station of the Macam
average BC has also been calculated and plotted versus wind speed, Network, located at 33 270 50.432, 70 390 39.6200 . This Network is
temperature and relative humidity, but the correlation between all used by the Ministry of the Environment to evaluate the air quality
these variables is very low. This is shown in Fig. 4bed, and Table 3 of the city and has several pollution monitors as well as meteoro-
summarizes the correlation coefficient results. Trompetter et al. logical stations. PM2.5 was measured with a TEOM 1400 monitor
(2010) have observed an inverse correlation between mean PM10 from Rupprecht & Patachnick, Albany, New York, currently, Thermo
and surface temperature, relative humidity and wind speed in New Scientific. Parque O'Higgins station is located 4.3 km south-west of
Zealand. However, in this work correlations between mean BC and the base of the hill. In winter, during the day, temperatures vary
surface temperature, humidity or wind speed are very low in between 5 and 25  C and at night and early morning temperatures
Don ~ ihue (r2 ¼ 0.044, 0.015, 0.013) and an inverse correlation may drop down to 2e3  C. Parque O'Higgins is located in down-
cannot be seen. The difference may be related to different town Santiago, which has mix of commercial and residential areas.
There are very few single home residences, thus wood burning is
not used as the main source of heating, but there are multiple
Table 3 sources of primary and secondary PM2.5.
Correlation coefficient between BC or PM2.5 and meteorological variables.
As before, days with surface temperature inversion were sepa-
~ ihue 2011
Don Correlation, r2 rated from days without inversion. Days with temperature inver-
Intensity of inversion and mean BC 0.128 sion were defined as those in which the temperature in the bottom
Strength of inversion and mean BC 0.032 of the hill was lower than temperature in the middle of the hill for
Surface temperature and hourly BC 0.044 at least 1 h in the morning. As it happened in Don ~ ihue, all in-
Relative humidity and hourly BC 0.015 versions ended around 11 or 12 AM, none of the inversions lasted
Wind speed and hourly BC 0.013
Downtown Santiago 2005
two days. The longest inversion lasted 17 h and the average was
Intensity of inversion and mean PM2.5 0.123 12 h.
Strength of inversion and mean PM2.5 0.065 The meteorological variables that may change when there is a
Surface temperature and hourly PM2.5 0.000 temperature inversion have been calculated to study its relation-
Wind speed and hourly PM2.5 0.113
ship with temperature. As before, during inversions the tempera-
Western Santiago 2004
Height of the base of the inversion and PM2.5 0.443 ture is lower, the wind speed is lower and humidity is lower, but the
Temperature of the base of the inversion and PM2.5 0.400 hours of the changes are different. Fig. 5 shows the temperature,
Height of the top of the inversion and PM2.5 0.054 relative humidity, wind speed and direction for Parque O'Higgins
Surface temperature and hourly PM2.5 0.045 separated for days with and without inversion. As expected, tem-
Wind speed and hourly PM2.5 0.144
perature is lower when there is thermal inversion at night and early
296 E. Gramsch et al. / Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298
Fig. 8. Vertical temperature profiles measured from commercial aircraft departing from the main airport in Santiago de Chile. (a) day with surface and subsidence inversion, (b) day
with only surface inversion.
morning. During the afternoon, the temperature on inversion days
is higher. Higher temperatures during the afternoon are associated
with clear days in which the sun heats the surface. The temperature
difference between inversion and non-inversion days is lower than
in Don~ ihue, but it is clearly seen during the morning hours (Fig. 5a).
The relative humidity during the hours of the temperature inver-
sion does not show a difference. Only during the afternoon the
relative humidity is different (see Fig. 5b). Table 2 shows a com-
parison of the meteorological variables with and without inversion.
The wind speed also presents a difference between days with
and without thermal inversion, being slightly lower during the
early morning hours on inversion days. In Don ~ ihue, the wind speed
was lower on inversion days during the night, but not during the
early morning. During the rest day, no clear difference is seen in the
wind speed. Fig. 2d shows the frequency wind rose for inversion
and non-inversion days between 9 pm and 6 am, i.e. when the
temperature inversion occurs. As shown in the figure, during
inversion days, the wind comes mainly from the east or south-east.
However, during non-inversion days, there are two components of
wind direction, coming from the south-west and south-east. The
wind coming from the south-west may be responsible for the lower
concentrations, because this wind comes from outside the city.
As expected, during days with temperature inversion, an in-
crease in pollution is observed. This increase is seen in the PM2.5
measurements from the TEOM monitor. Fig. 6 shows the average
Fig. 9. Average PM2.5 in western Santiago for days with surface and subsidence
inversion, days with only surface thermal inversion and days without thermal inver-
sion. Measurements were taken in June and July of 2004.
PM2.5 for days with and without inversion for the months of May
and June 2005 in Parque O'Higgins. When there is thermal inver-
sion, PM2.5 is 35% higher than days without inversion. As was the
case in Don ~ ihue, this large difference highlights the influence of
thermal inversion conditions on pollution. At night, the increase in
BC during inversion days is larger than the increase at other hours
of the day, which is consistent with lower wind speeds. Wallace and
Kanaroglou (2009) have also found significant increases in PM2.5
and NO2 when there are nighttime inversions in Ontario, Canada
but they did not calculate the correlation between inversion and
these variables.
As before, the correlation between daily average PM2.5 and the
intensity of the inversion has been calculated and it is shown in
Fig. 7a. It can be seen there is negligible correlation between both
variables (r2 ¼ 0.1233). The correlation between the strength of the
inversion (maximum temperature difference) and PM2.5 has also
been calculated and it is very low (r2 ¼ 0.065). For illustration, the
hourly PM2.5 has been plotted versus wind speed in Fig. 7b for the
two month period, very low correlation is also observed
(r2 ¼ 0.113). A summary of these correlations is shown in Table 3.
These numbers indicate that it is not possible to find a pair of
variables that can associate PM2.5 with the intensity of temperature
inversion.
3.3. Western Santiago 2004
During winter of 2004, temperature profiles up to 10,000 m
were measured from commercial aircraft departing from the main
airport in Santiago de Chile (elevation 474 m above sea level). Data
were collected from MADIS (Meteorological Assimilation Data
Ingest System) provided by NOAA for the months of June, July and
August. These profiles could distinguish between surface and
subsidence thermal inversion, because temperature values were
obtained for all heights, not just two points as in Don ~ ihue or
Downtown Santiago. For most of the days there were two sets of
temperature measurements: at 9:45 and 11:45 am local time. The
first measurement at 9:45 shows clearly the surface inversion. The
second measurement shows the breakup of the surface inversion,
while the subsidence inversion remains. Simultaneously, PM2.5 was
measured in one of the stations of the Macam Network closest to
the airport (Pudahuel). As in Parque O'Higgins PM2.5 was measured
with a TEOM monitor with 1 h frequency.
As in the other measurement sites, temperature data was used
to select days with and without inversion. For simplicity, in these
graphs the height (distance from ground) and not the elevation
(distance from sea level) has been plotted. An example of two types
 E. Gramsch et al. / Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298
Fig. 10. (a) Correlation coefficient between daily average PM2.5 and the height of the base of the inversion (b) Correlation between daily average PM2.5 and the temperature at the
base of the inversion (c) Dependence of 1-h average PM2.5 on (c) wind speed, (d) temperature in western Santiago.
of temperature profiles that can occur in Santiago is shown in Fig. 8
for June 6 and June 13, 2004. The left graph shows a measurement
at 9:45 am in which the surface and subsidence inversion are seen.
The right graph shows a surface inversion and a discontinuity in the
temperature curve at ~1200 m, but there is no occurrence of sub-
sidence inversion because the temperature at the bottom is higher
than the temperature at the top. Based on profiles such as shown in
Fig. 8, data were separated in days in which there was only surface
inversion (Fig. 8b), days in which there was surface and subsidence
inversion (Fig. 8a) and days without inversion.
The PM2.5 hourly average was calculated for these three condi-
tions and is shown in Fig. 9. During days in which there is only
surface inversion, PM2.5 concentration is higher during the morning
(1e6 am) but during the evening or night, the concentration is
similar to days without inversion. PM2.5 during these days is 14%
higher than days without inversion. Thus it seems that surface
inversion influences PM2.5 concentration only during the morning.
In contrast, during days in which there is surface and subsidence
inversion, the concentration is higher during the morning and it is
higher at night. On days with both types of inversion, PM2.5 is 84%
higher than days without inversion. When there is no thermal
inversion, PM2.5 concentration is lower.
As it was done with data from the other two sites, the corre-
lation between inversion and PM2.5 concentration was calculated.
For this campaign the temperature as function of altitude was
available from commercial aircraft measurements, thus it was
possible to obtain the temperature and height at the base and top
of the subsidence inversion. It was not possible to obtain the
297
strength or intensity of the inversion as in the other two sites
because there was no continuous temperature data as a function
of time.
The temperature and the height at the base of the inversion
versus the daily average PM2.5 in the morning have been plotted in
Fig. 10. In this case, the correlation between these variables and
PM2.5 is r2 ¼ 0.44 and r2 ¼ 0.40, which are higher than what was
found for Don ~ ihue or downtown Santiago. This is an indication that
the height or the temperature at the base of the inversion is better
than the strength or intensity of the inversion at predicting the
concentration of PM2.5 or BC. The difference in correlation may be
related to the extent of the air masses that these parameters assess.
The strength or intensity of the inversion uses the temperature at
the surface and at 300 or 400 m height and it is an evaluation of the
near surface conditions. The height or temperature at the base of
the inversion uses information up to 1000 m and the air mass that
is evaluated is much larger. Thus it seems that in order to have good
correlation between BC or PM2.5 and temperature inversion it is
necessary to sample a large air mass. These results are consistent
with the correlation that was found (r2 ~0.4) by Schaefer et al.
(2006) between the mixing layer height and NO2 in Munich.
The correlation between temperature and height of the top of
the inversion versus PM2.5 has also been calculated, but the results
are not as high as what is given in Fig. 10a or b and are summa-
rized in Table 3. Following Trompetter at al, (Trompetter et al.,
2010) PM2.5 has been plotted against wind speed (Fig. 10c) and
surface temperature (Fig. 10d) but the correlation is very low
(Table 3).
298 E. Gramsch et al. / Atmospheric Environment 98 (2014) 290e298
4. Conclusions
In two sites (Don ~ ihue and downtown Santiago) temperature
was measured continuously as function of time, but only at three
heights. In the rural site (Don ~ ihue) the data showed that on days
with temperature inversion, the black carbon concentration is 57%
higher than days without inversion. But, negligible correlation was
found between the strength (r2 ¼ 0.032) or intensity (r2 ¼ 0.128) of
the inversion with BC. In the downtown Santiago site PM2.5 was
found to be 35% higher during days with thermal inversion, but, no
correlation was found between PM2.5 and the strength (r2 ¼ 0.065)
or intensity (r2 ¼ 0.123) of the inversion. In the third site (western
Santiago) temperature was measured continuously as a function of
height but only twice per day. In the western Santiago site, tem-
perature measurements allowed the separation of days with sur-
face and subsidence inversion and only surface inversion. It was
found that PM2.5 concentration was dependent on the type of
inversion of the day. When there was only surface inversion, PM2.5
was higher than average only during the morning. When there was
surface and subsidence inversion, PM2.5 was higher during the
morning and at night. In this site the temperature measurements
allowed calculating the height and temperature of the base of the
subsidence inversion. It was found that both parameters had a
moderate correlation (r2 ¼ 0.443 and r2 ¼ 0.400) with PM2.5.
In all sites, a clear difference in concentrations of BC or PM2.5
was found when there was thermal inversion. However, using
continuous temperature measurements at limited heights is not
enough to find a significant correlation between the inversion and
BC or PM2.5. When temperature data as function of height is
available, a moderate correlation is found, indicating that the
complete vertical temperature profile is needed in order to find a
relationship between those variables and it is necessary to sample a
large air mass.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the University of Santiago (Dicyt)
grant number 091033SM, the Ministry of the Environment, project
number 1287-16-LP05 and Fondecyt grant number 1120672.
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