Optical particle counter data collected in two inhabited sites close to an industrial hot spot during a three months survey

Data on this paper describe the monitoring of different size ranges of particulate matter on dwellings positioned close to an integral cycle steel plant. Data were collected by eight channel (PM0.3, PM0.5, PM0.7, PM1, PM2, PM3, PM5, PM10) optical particle counters positioned in two sites. The data were recorded as counts-per-minute for every size channel in a three months survey from June to September 2015. Basic statistical elaboration and boxplot graphs as well as raw data are included. The data are related to “Characterization of variability of air particulate matter size profiles recorded by Optical Particle Counters near a complex emissive source by use of Self-Organizing Map algorithm” Licen et al.,2019, in which a statistical elaboration by Self-Organizing Map algorithm is proposed.


Data
The data presented describe monitoring of particulate matter (PM) at dwellings positioned near to an integral cycle steel plant. The counts-per-minute for 8 p.m. size ranges were collected in two sites (see map in Fig. 1) during a three months monitoring campaign (5th June 2015 -10th September 2015) by Optical Particle Counters (OPCs). Fig. 1 shows a map of the site where the data were collected. Table 1 displays a comparison of data collected in the two sites for each PM size range using basic statistics. Fig. 2 shows boxplot graphs to compare the distribution of the data in the two sites for each PM size range.

Site description
The data were collected in the city of Trieste (NE-Italy) near dwellings positioned close to an integrated steel plant. In the past years several studies were conducted on the site to assess different pollutant and odor impacts [3e5]. The main renown sources of particulate matter of the plant are the blast furnace [6,7] and carbon and mineral storage areas. Site A and site B are within a radius of 350 m around the above mentioned sources.

Data format
Table is used to show basic statistics, boxplot graphs are used to show the comparison between the two sites, raw data are provided as well

Experimental factors
Counts-per-minute for each of the eight size channels were collected in two sites during a three months survey.

Experimental features
The counts-per-minute collected by each instrument were loaded in R software [2] as a text file and elaborated to obtain the basic statistics and the boxplot graphs Data source location The data were collected in Trieste, Italy Data accessibility Data are within this article.

Related research article
Licen, S., Cozzutto, S., Barbieri, G., Crosera, M., Adami, G., Barbieri, P. "Characterization of variability of air particulate matter size profiles recorded by optical particle counters near a complex emissive source by use of Self-Organizing Map algorithm" 2019 Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, 190, 48e54 [1] Value of the data Variability of particulate matter size distribution (optical diameter 0,3e10 mm) at minute resolution during three months at two civil dwellings exposed to steel plant emissions is presented, allowing assessment of potential short term exposure to different type of air particulate matter; The raw data included can be used to test different/new statistical models on an articulated real environmental data set (2 sites, 8 dimensional bins, about 100 000 minutes).
named from now on in the text as PM03, PM05, PM07, PM1, PM2, PM3, PM5 and PM10 respectively. The instruments continuously sampled air at 1 l$min -1 and provided data count per minute for each channel. The three months monitoring campaign was conducted in the period from June to September (5th June 2015e10th September 2015) because it is characterized by the presence of sea breezes blowing from the sea to the inland, i.e., from the steel plant to the city.

Raw data
The dataset is presented in two comma delimited text files, one for each site. The filename identify the site. The header of the dataset reports the date/time of collection followed by the counts-perminute for every channel size (see par. 2.2).

Basic statistics
The basic statistics for the data were evaluated in R software environment [2] and are reported in Table 1.

Boxplot graphs
The boxplot graphs were produced in R software environment [2] and are reported in Fig. 2. A value has been considered as outlier if it was more than two times the interquartile range from the box.