Real-Time Source Apportionment of Organic Aerosols in Three European Cities

Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Nov 15;56(22):15290-15297. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c02509. Epub 2022 Nov 1.

Abstract

97% of the urban population in the EU in 2019 were exposed to an annual fine particulate matter level higher than the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines (5 μg/m3). Organic aerosol (OA) is one of the major air pollutants, and the knowledge of its sources is crucial for designing cost-effective mitigation strategies. Positive matrix factorization (PMF) on aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) or aerosol chemical speciation monitor (ACSM) data is the most common method for source apportionment (SA) analysis on ambient OA. However, conventional PMF requires extensive human labor, preventing the implementation of SA for routine monitoring applications. This study proposes the source finder real-time (SoFi RT, Datalystica Ltd.) approach for efficient retrieval of OA sources. The results generated by SoFi RT agree remarkably well with the conventional rolling PMF results regarding factor profiles, time series, diurnal patterns, and yearly relative contributions of OA factor on three year-long ACSM data sets collected in Athens, Paris, and Zurich. Although the initialization of SoFi RT requires a priori knowledge of OA sources (i.e., the approximate number of factors and relevant factor profiles) for the sampling site, this technique minimizes user interactions. Eventually, it could provide up-to-date trustable information on timescales useful to policymakers and air quality modelers.

Keywords: SoFi RT; organic aerosol; real-time; source apportionment; urban pollution.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aerosols / analysis
  • Air Pollutants* / analysis
  • Air Pollution* / analysis
  • Air Pollution* / prevention & control
  • Cities
  • Environmental Monitoring / methods
  • Humans
  • Particulate Matter / analysis

Substances

  • Aerosols
  • Air Pollutants
  • Particulate Matter