Optical and physical properties of primary on-road vehicle particle emissions and their implications for climate change

During the summers of 2004 and 2006, extinction and scattering coefficients of particle emissions inside a San Francisco Bay Area roadway tunnel were measured using a combined cavity ring-down and nephelometer instrument. Particle size distributions and humidification were also measured, as well as several gas phase species. Vehicles in the tunnel traveled up a 4% grade at a speed of approximately 60 km h(-1). The traffic situation in the tunnel allows the apportionment of emission factors between light duty gasoline vehicles and diesel trucks. Cross-section emission factors for optical properties were determined for the apportioned vehicles to be consistent with gas phase and particulate matter emission factors. The absorption emission factor (the absorption cross-section per mass of fuel burned) for diesel trucks (4.4 +/- 0.79 m(2) kg(-1)) was 22 times larger than for light-duty gasoline vehicles (0.20 +/- 0.05 m(2) kg(-1)). The single scattering albedo of particles-which represents the fraction of incident light that is scattered as opposed to absorbed-was 0.2 for diesel trucks and 0.3 for light duty gasoline vehicles. These facts indicate that particulate matter from motor vehicles exerts a positive (i.e., warming) radiative climate forcing. Average particulate mass absorption efficiencies for diesel trucks and light duty gasoline vehicles were 3.14 +/- 0.88 m(2) g(PM)(-1) and 2.9 +/- 1.07 m(2) g(PM)(-1), respectively. Particle size distributions and optical properties were insensitive to increases in relative humidity to values in excess of 90%, reinforcing previous findings that freshly emitted motor vehicle particulate matter is hydrophobic. Published by Elsevier Ltd.