Effects of marine fuel sulfur restrictions on particle properties in atmospheric aerosol at the Baltic Sea

• Main Author: Seppälä, Sami
• Other Authors: Tekniikan ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Tampere University
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: sulfur restriction; atmospheric aerosol; ship emission; ship plume; Teknis-luonnontieteellinen DI-tutkinto-ohjelma - Degree Programme in Science and Engineering; MSc (Tech); Arctic; Human health
• Online Access: https://trepo.tuni.fi/handle/10024/119487

Emissions produced by shipping have been shown to have a significant effect on the climate and the human health especially in coastal areas. It is estimated that typically the emissions produced by shipping have in total a cooling effect on the climate as negative radiative forcing (RF) induced by refractive particulate matter (PM) negates the warming effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted in shipping. However, this effect is not uniform and, in some areas, for example in the Arctic the net effect of shipping on the climate might also be warming. The shipping emissions also contribute to the acidification of marine environments. The effects of shipping emissions on the human health are negative. The shipping emissions have been shown to lead to increased premature mortality and numerous respiratory diseases. This work focuses on the effects of the different marine fuel sulfur restrictions of 1.50 %, 1.00 % and 0.10 % on the atmospheric aerosol and ship plumes in the Baltic Sea Sulfur Emission Control Area (SECA). The discussed properties are total particle number concentration (PNC), particle number concentration over background particle number concentration during plume (PNCpl), the direct contribution of the PNCpl to the total PNC, the number size distribution of the plume particles (NSDpl), the number size distribution of the background particles (NSDbg), the surface area concentration of the plume particles (PSCpl) and plume aging. The NSDpls are also compared to NSDs from direct emission measurements. The measurement data used in this work is differential mobility particle sizer (DMPS) data measured by the Finnish Meteorological Institute at the measurement station of Utö in the Baltic Sea between 11.1.2007-31.12.2016. The DMPS data was used with the Automatic Identification System (AIS) and weather data to produce the results. In this work the plumes were analyzed from three different sectors with the plumes arriving from different distances on average. The goal of this work was to study if the ship ...