Ultrafine particles affect human health and have an impact on the climate. Their concentration is usually particularly high in cities. Therefore, the determination of the surface-atmosphere exchange of ultrafine particles is of great importance.
In our recent publication, we asked ourselves whether the emission of ultrafine particles from the city into the atmosphere can be modeled using a machine learning approach. We were able to confirm this question on the basis of long-term measurements of ultrafine particle number fluxes in Berlin. This showed that road traffic activity and the turbulent state of the atmosphere at the measurement site have a significant influence on the emission of ultrafine particles into the atmosphere.
Bitz, T., Gerling, L., Meier, F. and Weber, S. (2024). Prediction of urban ultrafine particle emission fluxes using generalized additive models. Atmospheric Environment. 334: 120677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2024.120677