Assessment of PM2.5 sources and their corresponding level of uncertainty in a coastal urban area using EPA PMF 5.0 enhanced diagnostics

Manousakas, M.; Papaefthymiou, H.; Diapouli, E.; Migliori, A.; Karydas, A.; Bogdanović Radović, Ivančica; Eleftheriadis, K. (2017) Assessment of PM2.5 sources and their corresponding level of uncertainty in a coastal urban area using EPA PMF 5.0 enhanced diagnostics. Science of the total environment, 574 . pp. 155-164. ISSN 0048-9697

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.09.047

Abstract

Datasets that include only the PM elemental composition and no other important constituents such as ions and OC, should be treated carefully when used for source apportionment. This work is demonstrating how a source apportionment study utilizing PMF 5.0 enhanced diagnostic tools can achieve an improved solution with documented levels of uncertainty for such a dataset. The uncertainty of the solution is rarely reported in source apportionment studies or it is reported partially. Reporting the uncertainty of the solution is very important especially in the case of small datasets. PM2.5 samples collected in Patras during the year 2011 were used. The concentrations of 22 elements (Z=11-33) were determined using PIXE. Source apportionment analysis revealed that PM2.5 emission sources were biomass burning (11%), sea salt (8%), shipping emissions (10%), vehicle emissions (33%), mineral dust (2%) and secondary sulfates (33%) while unaccounted mass was 3%. Although Patras city center is located in a very close proximity to the city's harbor, the contribution of shipping originating emissions was never before quantified. As rotational stability is hard to be achieved when a small dataset is used the rotational stability of the solution was thoroughly evaluated. A number of constraints were applied to the solution in order to reduce rotational ambiguity.

Item Type:

Article

Additional Information:

This work has been supported by the European Community as an Integrating Activity 'Support of Public and Industrial Research Using Ion Beam Technology (SPIRIT)' under EC contract no. 227012. Financial support from the EnTeC FP7 Capacities program (REGPOT- 2012-2013-1, FP7, ID: 655 316173) and K. Karatheodori program (Grand D165) are also acknowledged.

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Source apportionment; PMF 5.0; PM2.5; PMF uncertainty

Subjects:

NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics

Divisions:

Division of Experimental Physics

Projects: