Apportionment of ambient primary and secondary pollutantsduring a 2001 summer study in pittsburgh using U.S. environmental protection agency UNMIX

Abstract

Apportionment of primary and secondary pollutants during the summer 2001 Pittsburgh AirQuality Study (PAQS) is reported. Several sites were included in PAQS, with the main site (the supersite) adjacent to the Carnegie Mellon University campus in Schenley Park. One of the additional sampling sites was located at the National Energy Technology Laboratory, located ∼18 km southeast of downtown Pittsburgh. Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) mass, gas-phase volatile organic material (VOM), particulate semivolatile and nonvolatile organic material (NVOM), and ammonium sulfate were apportioned at the two sites into their primary and secondary contributions using the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency UNMIX 2.3 multivariate receptor modeling and analysis software. A portion of each of these species was identified as originating from gasoline and diesel primary mobile sources. Some ofthe organic material was formed from local secondary transformation processes, whereas the greatmajority of the secondary sulfate was associatedwith regional transformation contributions. The results indicated that the diurnal patterns of secondary gas-phase VOM and particulate semivolatile and NVOM were not correlated with secondary ammonium sulfate contributions but were associated with separate formation pathways. These findings are consistent with the bulk of the secondary ammonium sulfate in the Pittsburgh area being the result of contributions from distant transport and, thus, decoupled from local activity involving organic pollutants in the metropolitan area. © 2006 Air and Waste Management Association.