Abstract
Aim: Ultrafine particles (UFP; <100 nm diameter) are highly
variable in space and time and as such can be challenging to model for
use in epidemiological studies. Recent studies have shown that airports
are contributors to local air pollution, but research is needed to
understand the impact from individual aircraft and how to incorporate
flight activity into UFP exposure models. Our aim was to characterize
UFP transport from aircraft exhaust during landing at Boston Logan
International Airport (MA, USA). Methods: Particle number concentration
(PNC; a proxy for UFP) was measured continuously on selected weeks at
the University of Massachusetts Boston campus from April-September 2017
at 1-sec resolution. The site was positioned 4.8 km southwest of the
airport edge and <1 km from a major landing trajectory
(runways 4L and 4R). Wind speed and direction were concurrently measured
near the UFP monitor at 5-min resolution. For this same monitoring
period, flight activity data were acquired from the U.S. Federal
Aviation Administration, which included three-dimensional positions of
aircraft at approximately 5-sec resolution. All data were merged by
timestamp prior to analysis. Results: During times when flights were
landing on 4L/R, the 99th percentile of 1-sec PNC during winds from the
east (no traffic sources) was 88,000 particles/cm3. The concentration
dropped >50% when flights were landing along other
trajectories during these same winds. Stratification by wind speed
showed that when flights were landing along 4L/R, higher wind speeds
resulted in increased median PNC during winds downwind of arrival
aircraft, but not from the opposite direction. When flights were landing
along other runway trajectories nearly all wind directions observed
decreased PNC with increased wind speed. Conclusions: Our results
suggest that aircraft can play a role in peak ambient UFP exposures
during landing and that downwind transport of UFP from aircraft exhaust
needs further investigation.