Local versus Regional Contributions to PM10 Levels in the Western Mediterranean

Álvaro Clemente; Nuria Galindo; Jose F. Nicolás; Javier Crespo; Carlos Pastor; Eduardo Yubero

doi:10.4209/aaqr.230218

Local versus Regional Contributions to PM10 Levels in the Western Mediterranean

Aerosol and Atmospheric Chemistry Europe

Álvaro Clemente, Nuria Galindo, Jose F. Nicolás, Javier Crespo, Carlos Pastor, Eduardo Yubero This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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Atmospheric Pollution Laboratory (LCA), Department of Applied Physics, Miguel Hernández University, Avenida de la Universidad S/N, 03202 Elche, Spain

Received: September 14, 2023
Revised: November 3, 2023
Accepted: November 7, 2023

Copyright The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are cited.

Download Citation: ||https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.230218

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Cite this article:

Clemente, Á., Galindo, N., Nicolás, J.F., Crespo, J., Pastor, C., Yubero, E. (2023). Local versus Regional Contributions to PM₁₀ Levels in the Western Mediterranean. Aerosol Air Qual. Res. 23, 230218. https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.230218

HIGHLIGHTS

The PMF model was used for PM₁₀ source identification at an urban and a mountain site.
Seven sources with similar chemical profiles were identified at both sites.
At the mountain station the largest sources were regional sources.
Traffic was by far the main contributor to PM₁₀ at the urban site, especially in winter.

ABSTRACT

In this study, PM₁₀ daily samples were collected every day during approximately one month in winter and one month in summer, 2019. Sampling was performed simultaneously at two different locations: an urban traffic site (~80 m a.s.l.) and a regional background station (~1500 m a.s.l.) in the western Mediterranean. The objective of this work was to investigate PM₁₀ sources at both sites in order to determine regional and urban contributions to aerosol levels. Seven factors were obtained at both sites using Positive Matrix Factorisation (PMF): Saharan dust, Aged sea salt, Ammonium sulfate, Nitrate, Road traffic, Local dust and Fresh sea salt. At the urban site, the contribution of vehicle related sources (Road traffic, Nitrate and Local dust) was significantly higher in winter (~80%) than in summer (~60%). The average contribution of Saharan dust to PM₁₀ levels was much larger at the mountain site (33%) than at the urban location (9%), due to the absence of significant anthropogenic emission sources in the vicinity of the regional background sampling station.