A Fundamental Study of Urban Particulate Matter Using Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (DFA)

In urban area, the traffic is a major source producing aerosol particulate matter(PM). In general, the sizes of PM from traffic emissions are in the range of 10-1000nm. Particles less than 100nm in diameter (ultrafine scale) have long residence time and transport distance, which greatly increase the risk of respiratory and cardiovasculary diseases via inhalation. Dynamic behaviours of particulate matters in air mainly include diffusion, coagulation and condensation, which form a complex process and not well understood yet. It is of high priority to investigate the characteristics of ultrafine particulates, the long-term correlations and the transport properties through analyzing nonlinear dynamical characteristics and statistical behaviours. The detrended fluctuation analysis(DFA) is regarded as an effective tool to deal with complex systems/processes. Hence, we propose a pioneer study on mechanisms of aggregation and diffusion of particular matters using DFA approach. The proposal aims to explore the long-term correlation or long-range interaction, the corresponding multifractal nature, and aggregation dynamics on particulate matters.