New Publication: 

Complexity in atmospheric particulate matter concentration


Posted: 07 August 2024 
The PM2.5 concentration in the atmosphere is a direct effect of urbanization, and can cause health problems. Using annual averages of PM2.5 concentrations for more than 1500 cities in the world, we obtained statistical signatures indicating mechanisms of self-organized criticality (SOC) in the atmosphere.

We examine the signatures of particulate matter concentration: 



In our newly accepted work, we observed power-law regimes in the distributions of yearly PM2.5 concentrations from various cities in the world. Using a simple analytic model, we recover these power-laws and the left tails of the distributions. 


This cross-sectional (i.e. across various cities) analysis complements the previous longitudinal (i.e. within-city data over extended periods of time) analyses that also show power-law regimes. 


These works appear to indicate that the atmosphere, while heavily affected by anthropogenic factors (primarily, urbanization) that cause pollution, is a complex system manifesting self-organized criticality (SOC). 


S.A. Estavillo finished her BS Premed Physics from the De La Salle University (DLSU). E. Vallar, M.C. Galvez, P.M. Ong, and R.C. Batac are faculty members from the Department of Physics, College of Science (COS) of the DLSU. 


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