Human activities generate significant amounts of particulates. For example:
• Burning of fossil fuels (e.g., aircraft), joss paper, waste, firecrackers and biomass including wood 展开

Human-produced aerosols such as particle pollution tend to have a smaller radius than aerosol particles of natural origin (such as windblown dust). The false-color maps in the map of distribution of aerosol particles on the right show where there are natural … 展开

Technologies
Particulate matter emissions are highly regulated in most industrialized countries. Due to environmental concerns, most industries are required to … 展开

Atmospheric aerosols affect the climate of the Earth by changing the amount of incoming solar radiation and outgoing terrestrial longwave … 展开

The composition and toxicity of aerosols, including particles, depends on their source and atmospheric chemistry and varies widely. Wind-blown mineral dust tends to be made of mineral oxides and other material blown from the Earth's crust; this particulate is 展开

In general, the smaller and lighter a particle is, the longer it will stay in the air. Larger particles (greater than 10 micrometers in diameter) tend to settle to the ground by gravity in a matter of hours. The smallest particles (less than 1 micrometer) can stay in … 展开

Particulates have been measured in increasingly sophisticated ways since air pollution was first systematically studied in the early 20th century. The earliest methods included relatively crude Ringelmann charts, which were grey-shaded cards against … 展开