Source apportionment of fine carbonaceous particles by positive matrix factorization at Gosan background site in East Asia

Abstract

Fine particle (aerodynamic diameter <2.5 mu m) samples were collected during six intensive measurement periods from November 2001 to August 2003 at Gosan, Jeju Island, Korea, which is one of the representative background sites in East Asia. Chemical composition of these aerosol samples including major ion components, trace elements, organic and elemental carbon (OC and EC), and particulate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were analyzed to study the impact of long-range transport of anthropogenic aerosol. Aerosol chemical composition data were then analyzed using the positive matrix factorization (PMF) technique in order to identify the possible sources and estimate their contribution to particulate matter mass. Fourteen sources were then resolved including soil dust, fresh sea salt, transformed natural source, ammonium sulfate, ammonium nitrate, secondary organic carbon, diesel vehicle, gasoline vehicle, fuel oil combustion, biomass burning, coal combustion, municipal incineration, metallurgical emission source, and volcanic emission. The PMF analysis results of source contributions showed that the natural sources including soil dust, fresh and aged sea salt, and volcanic emission contributed to about 20% of the measured PM2.5 mass. Other primary anthropogenic sources such as diesel and gasoline vehicle, coal and fuel oil combustion, biomass burning, municipal incineration, metallurgical source contributed about 34% of PM2.5 mass. Especially, the secondary aerosol mainly involved with sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and organic carbon contributed to about 39% of the PM2.5 mass. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.