1. Development and evaluation of an improved offline aerosol mass spectrometry techniqueChristina Vasilakopoulou, Kalliopi Florou, Christos Kaltsonoudis, Iasonas Stavroulas, Nikolaos Mihalopoulos, Spyros N. Pandis, 2023, original scientific article Abstract: Abstract. The offline aerosol mass spectrometry technique is
a useful tool for the source apportionment of organic aerosol (OA) in areas
and periods during which an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) is not available. However, the technique is
based on the extraction of aerosol samples in water, while several
atmospheric OA components are partially or fully insoluble in water. In this work an improved offline technique was developed and evaluated in an effort to capture most of the partially soluble and insoluble organic aerosol material, reducing significantly the uncertainty of the corresponding source
apportionment. A major advantage of the proposed approach is that no
corrections are needed for the offline analysis to account for the limited
water solubility of some OA components. The improved offline AMS analysis
was tested in three campaigns: two during winter and one during summer.
Collocated online AMS measurements were performed for the evaluation of the offline method. Source apportionment analysis was performed separately for the online and the offline measurements using positive matrix
factorization (PMF). The PMF results showed that the fractional contribution of each factor to the total OA differed between the online and the offline PMF results by less than 15 %. The differences in the AMS spectra of the
factors of the two approaches could be significant, suggesting that the use
of factor profiles from the literature in the offline analysis may lead to
complications. Part of the good agreement between the online and the
offline PMF results is due to the ability of the improved offline AMS
technique to capture a bigger part of the OA, including insoluble organic
material. This was evident by the significant fraction of submicrometer
suspended insoluble particles present in the water extract and by the
reduced insoluble material on the filters after the extraction process. More than half of the elemental carbon (EC) was on average missing from the
filters after the water extraction. Significant EC concentrations were
measured in the produced aerosol that was used as input to the AMS during
the offline analysis.
Keywords: organic aerosol, receptor modeling, offline PMF, Greece
Published in RUNG: 10.05.2024; Views: 991; Downloads: 5
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2. Intra- and inter-city variability of ▫$PM_2.5$▫ concentrations in Greece as determined with a low-cost sensor networkKonstantinos Dimitriou, Iasonas Stavroulas, Georgios Grivas, Charalampos Chatzidiakos, Georgios Kosmopoulos, Andreas Kazantzidis, Konstantinos Kourtidis, Athanasios Karagioras, Nikolaos Hatzianastassiou, Spyros N. Pandis, 2023, original scientific article Abstract: Measurements of PM2.5 concentrations in five major Greek cities over a two-year period using calibrated low-cost sensor-based particulate matter (PM) monitors (Purple Air PA-II) were combined with local meteorological parameters, synoptic patterns and air mass residence time models to investigate the factors controlling PM2.5 spatiotemporal variability over continental Greece. Fourteen sensors nodes in Athens, Patras, Ioannina, Xanthi, and Thermi (in the Metropolitan Area of Thessaloniki) were selected out of more than 100 of a countrywide network for detailed analysis. The cities have populations ranging from 65k to 3M inhabitants and cover different latitudes along the South-North axis. High correlations between the daily average PM2.5 levels were observed among all sites, indicating strong intra- and inter-city covariance of concentrations, both in cold and warm periods. Higher PM2.5 concentrations in all cities during the cold period were primarily associated with low temperatures and stagnant anticyclonic conditions, favoring the entrapment of residential heating emissions from biomass burning. Anticyclonic conditions were also connected to an increased frequency of PM2.5 episodes, exceeding the updated daily guideline value (15 μg m−3) of the World Health Organization (WHO). During the warm period, nearly uniform PM2.5 levels were encountered across continental Greece, independently of their population size. This uniformity strongly suggests the importance of long-range transport and regional secondary aerosol formation for PM2.5 during this period. Peak concentrations were associated mainly with regional northern air flows over Greece and the Balkan Peninsula. The use of the measurements from dense air quality sensor networks, provided that a robust calibration protocol and continuous data quality assurance practices are followed, appears to be an efficient tool to gain insights on the levels and variability of PM2.5 concentrations, underpinning the characterization of spatial and seasonal particularities and supporting real-time public information and warning.
Keywords: particulate matter, PM2.5, biomass burning, low-cost sensors, purple air PA-II, concentration weighted trajectory, potential source contribution function
Published in RUNG: 10.05.2024; Views: 1066; Downloads: 4
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3. The effect of the averaging period for PMF analysis of aerosol mass spectrometer measurements during offline applicationsChristina Vasilakopoulou, Iasonas Stavroulas, Nikolaos Mihalopoulos, Spyros N. Pandis, 2022, original scientific article Abstract: Offline aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) measurements can
provide valuable information about ambient organic aerosols in areas and
periods in which online AMS measurements are not available. However, these
offline measurements have a low temporal resolution, as they are based on
filter samples usually collected over 24 h. In this study, we examine
whether and how this low time resolution affects source apportionment
results. We used a five-month period (November 2016–March 2017) of online
measurements in Athens, Greece, and performed positive matrix factorization (PMF)
analysis to both the original dataset, which consists of 30 min
measurements, and to time averages from 1 up to 24 h. The 30 min results
indicated that five factors were able to represent the ambient organic
aerosol (OA): a biomass burning organic aerosol factor (BBOA), which contributed
16 % of the total OA; hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA) (29 %); cooking OA (COA) (20 %); more-oxygenated OA (MO-OOA) (18 %); and less-oxygenated OA (LO-OOA) (17 %). Use of the daily averages resulted in estimated average contributions that were within 8 % of the total OA compared with the high-resolution analysis for the five-month period. The most important difference was for the BBOA contribution, which was overestimated (25 % for low resolution versus 17 % for high resolution) when daily averages were used. The estimated secondary OA varied from 35 % to 28 % when the averaging
interval varied between 30 min and 24 h. The high-resolution results are
expected to be more accurate, both because they are based on much larger
datasets and because they are based on additional information about the
temporal source variability. The error for the low-resolution analysis was
much higher for individual days, and its results for high-concentration days in particular are quite uncertain. The low-resolution analysis
introduces errors in the determined AMS profiles for the BBOA and LO-OOA
factors but determines the rest relatively accurately (theta angle around
10∘ or less).
Keywords: AMS, offline PMF, ACSM, organic aerosols
Published in RUNG: 10.05.2024; Views: 1387; Downloads: 6
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