Particulate

Particulates are very tiny pieces of a solid or liquid that are carried floating in a gas. When the tiny pieces are solid, it is called a smoke. When the tiny pieces are liquid, it is called an aerosol. Aerosols can be naturally found in clouds and geysers. There are also artificial aerosols such as haze and some air pollutants. Smokes can be found naturally in wildfires and volcanoes. Artificially, they can be found in cigarettes, factories and power plants. Both of them can cause air pollution and climate change. It is the job of a air filter to remove them.

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Particulate Media

PM_2.5 and PM₁₀ compared with a human hair in a graphic from the Environmental Protection Agency
Airborne particles are commonly either biological contaminants, particulate contaminants, gaseous contaminants, or dust. This diagram shows the size distribution in micrometres (µm) of various types of airborne particles.
Particulate emission when using modern electrical power tool during home broadband installation, Tai Po, Hong Kong
Excavator (a type of heavy equipment commonly used at construction sites and roadworks) demolishing the remnants of the pre-war Postal Train 0880Station (Dworzec Pocztowy) at Jerozolimskie Avenue, Poland
GEOS portrait of global aerosols, August 1-September 14, 2024.*
  Black carbon/Fires (orange/red)
*
  Mineral dust (pink/magenta)
*     Sea salt (blue)*     Sulfates (green)
Horizon and layers of the atmosphere as seen from NASA Earth Observatory: troposphere (darkest), tropopause (brown), stratosphere (gray), mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere (blues). Colors are due to the dominant gases and particles in each layer.
False-color map based on data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. The percentage of small particles is displayed by color, from green (few small particles) to red (many small particles). Gray: the sensor did not collect data.
Average monthly aerosol amounts around the world, observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite.
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Italian city polluted by particulates and optic air detector (laser)
Fabric filters Hepa effect: without (outdoor) and with filter (indoor)