Incorporation of parametric factors into multilinear receptor model studies of Atlanta aerosol

In prior work with simulated data, ancillary variables including time resolved wind data were utilized in a multilinear model to successfully reduce rotational ambiguity and increase the number of resolved sources. In this study, time resolved wind and other data were incorporated into a model for the analysis of real measurement data. Twenty-four hour integrated PM2.5 (particulate matter less than or equal to 2.5 mum in aerodynamic diameter) compositional data were measured in Atlanta, GA between August 1998 and August 2000 (662 samples). A two-stage model that utilized 22 elemental species, two wind variables, and three time variables was used for this analysis. The model identified nine sources: sulfate-rich secondary aerosol 1 (54%), gasoline exhaust (15%), diesel exhaust (11%), nitrate-rich secondary aerosol (9%), metal processing (3%), wood smoke (3%), airborne soil (2%), sulfate-rich secondary aerosol 11 (2%), and the mixture of a cement kiln with a carbon-rich source (0.9%). The results of this study indicate that utilizing time resolved wind measurements aids to separate diesel exhaust from gasoline vehicle exhaust. For most of the sources, well-defined directional profiles, seasonal trends, and weekend effects were obtained. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.