Analysis of the TSP, PM10 concentrations and water-soluble ionic species in airborne samples over Sistan, Iran during the summer dusty period

Dahmardeh Behrooz, Reza; Esmaili-Sari, Abbas; Bahramifar, Nader; Kaskaoutis, D.G.

Analysis of the TSP, PM10 concentrations and water-soluble ionic species in airborne samples over Sistan, Iran during the summer dusty period

2016

Dahmardeh Behrooz, Reza | Esmaili-Sari, Abbas | Bahramifar, Nader | Kaskaoutis, D.G.

The present study analyzes the total suspended particulates (TSP) and particulate matter less than 10 μm (PM10) concentrations along with the water-soluble ionic species (WSIS) in airborne dust samples collected in Zabol, located in the Sistan basin of southeast Iran. Rather extreme TSP and PM10 mean concentrations of 1867.0 μg m−3 and 433.4 μg m−3 are found, while the WSIS contribute only 8.9% and 19.3% to the TSP and PM10 mass, respectively indicating large fraction of water-insoluble crustal elements, carbonaceous aerosols and heavy metals that remained unexplored. Ca2+ is the most abundant ionic species contributing ∼25–26% to the total WSIS mass, followed by NH4+, K+, and SO42−. Important fractions of Cl− and Na+ (7–9% of the total WSIS mass) indicate the presence of saline dust storms over Sistan due to desiccation of the Hamoun lakes and uplift of evaporated minerals by the strong Levar (120-days) wind. High correlations between the WSIS suggest large possibility for formation of NaCl, (NH4)2SO4, MgSO4, K2SO4, CaSO4 and NH4NO3. The dusty days (visibility < 2 km) are associated with intense winds (11.7 ms−1 on average) and large increase (∼80–100%) in the concentrations of the crustal elements (e.g., Ca2+, Mg2+ and Cl−) compared to the normal days, while the TSP and PM10 concentrations reach to 4496 μgm−3 and 1010.6 μgm−3, respectively.

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