Search Results
Quantitative determination of carbonaceous particle mixing state in Paris using single-particle mass spectrometer and aerosol mass spectrometer measurements
2013, Healy, R.M., Sciare, J., Poulain, L., Crippa, M., Wiedensohler, A., Prévôt, A.S.H., Baltensperger, U., Sarda-Estève, R., McGuire, M.L., Jeong, C.-H., McGillicuddy, E., O'Connor, I.P., Sodeau, J.R., Evans, G.J., Wenger, J.C.
Single-particle mixing state information can be a powerful tool for assessing the relative impact of local and regional sources of ambient particulate matter in urban environments. However, quantitative mixing state data are challenging to obtain using single-particle mass spectrometers. In this study, the quantitative chemical composition of carbonaceous single particles has been determined using an aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometer (ATOFMS) as part of the MEGAPOLI 2010 winter campaign in Paris, France. Relative peak areas of marker ions for elemental carbon (EC), organic aerosol (OA), ammonium, nitrate, sulfate and potassium were compared with concurrent measurements from an Aerodyne high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS), a thermal–optical OCEC analyser and a particle into liquid sampler coupled with ion chromatography (PILS-IC). ATOFMS-derived estimated mass concentrations reproduced the variability of these species well (R2 = 0.67–0.78), and 10 discrete mixing states for carbonaceous particles were identified and quantified. The chemical mixing state of HR-ToF-AMS organic aerosol factors, resolved using positive matrix factorisation, was also investigated through comparison with the ATOFMS dataset. The results indicate that hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA) detected in Paris is associated with two EC-rich mixing states which differ in their relative sulfate content, while fresh biomass burning OA (BBOA) is associated with two mixing states which differ significantly in their OA / EC ratios. Aged biomass burning OA (OOA2-BBOA) was found to be significantly internally mixed with nitrate, while secondary, oxidised OA (OOA) was associated with five particle mixing states, each exhibiting different relative secondary inorganic ion content. Externally mixed secondary organic aerosol was not observed. These findings demonstrate the range of primary and secondary organic aerosol mixing states in Paris. Examination of the temporal behaviour and chemical composition of the ATOFMS classes also enabled estimation of the relative contribution of transported emissions of each chemical species and total particle mass in the size range investigated. Only 22% of the total ATOFMS-derived particle mass was apportioned to fresh, local emissions, with 78% apportioned to regional/continental-scale emissions.
ACTRIS ACSM intercomparison - Part 2: Intercomparison of ME-2 organic source apportionment results from 15 individual, co-located aerosol mass spectrometers
2015, Fröhlich, R., Crenn, V., Setyan, A., Belis, C.A., Canonaco, F., Favez, O., Riffault, V., Slowik, J.G., Aas, W., Aijälä, M., Alastuey, A., Artiñano, B., Bonnaire, N., Bozzetti, C., Bressi, M., Carbone, C., Coz, E., Croteau, P.L., Cubison, M.J., Esser-Gietl, J.K., Green, D.C., Gros, V., Heikkinen, L., Herrmann, H., Jayne, J.T., Lunder, C.R., Minguillón, M.C., Močnik, G., O'Dowd, C.D., Ovadnevaite, J., Petralia, E., Poulain, L., Priestman, M., Ripoll, A., Sarda-Estève, R., Wiedensohler, A., Baltensperger, U., Sciare, J., Prévôt, A.S.H.
Chemically resolved atmospheric aerosol data sets from the largest intercomparison of the Aerodyne aerosol chemical speciation monitors (ACSMs) performed to date were collected at the French atmospheric supersite SIRTA. In total 13 quadrupole ACSMs (Q-ACSM) from the European ACTRIS ACSM network, one time-of-flight ACSM (ToF-ACSM), and one high-resolution ToF aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) were operated in parallel for about 3 weeks in November and December~2013. Part 1 of this study reports on the accuracy and precision of the instruments for all the measured species. In this work we report on the intercomparison of organic components and the results from factor analysis source apportionment by positive matrix factorisation (PMF) utilising the multilinear engine 2 (ME-2). Except for the organic contribution of mass-to-charge ratio m/z 44 to the total organics (f44), which varied by factors between 0.6 and 1.3 compared to the mean, the peaks in the organic mass spectra were similar among instruments. The m/z 44 differences in the spectra resulted in a variable f44 in the source profiles extracted by ME-2, but had only a minor influence on the extracted mass contributions of the sources. The presented source apportionment yielded four factors for all 15 instruments: hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol (HOA), cooking-related organic aerosol (COA), biomass burning-related organic aerosol (BBOA) and secondary oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA). ME-2 boundary conditions (profile constraints) were optimised individually by means of correlation to external data in order to achieve equivalent / comparable solutions for all ACSM instruments and the results are discussed together with the investigation of the influence of alternative anchors (reference profiles). A comparison of the ME-2 source apportionment output of all 15 instruments resulted in relative standard deviations (SD) from the mean between 13.7 and 22.7 % of the source's average mass contribution depending on the factors (HOA: 14.3 ± 2.2 %, COA: 15.0 ± 3.4 %, OOA: 41.5 ± 5.7 %, BBOA: 29.3 ± 5.0 %). Factors which tend to be subject to minor factor mixing (in this case COA) have higher relative uncertainties than factors which are recognised more readily like the OOA. Averaged over all factors and instruments the relative first SD from the mean of a source extracted with ME-2 was 17.2 %.
Aerosol particle measurements at three stationary sites in the megacity of Paris during summer 2009: Meteorology and air mass origin dominate aerosol particle composition and size distribution
2013, Freutel, F., Schneider, J., Drewnick, F., Weiden-Reinmüller, S.-L., Crippa, M., Prévôt, A.S.H., Baltensperger, U., Poulain, L., Wiedensohler, R.A., Sciare, J., Sarda-Estève, R., Burkhart, J.F., Eckhardt, S., Stohl, A., Gros, V., Colomb, A., Michoud, V., Doussin, J.F., Borbon, A., Haeffelin, M., Morille, Y., Beekmann, M., Borrmann, S.
During July 2009, a one-month measurement campaign was performed in the megacity of Paris. Amongst other measurement platforms, three stationary sites distributed over an area of 40 km in diameter in the greater Paris region enabled a detailed characterization of the aerosol particle and gas phase. Simulation results from the FLEXPART dispersion model were used to distinguish between different types of air masses sampled. It was found that the origin of air masses had a large influence on measured mass concentrations of the secondary species particulate sulphate, nitrate, ammonium, and oxygenated organic aerosol measured with the Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer in the submicron particle size range: particularly high concentrations of these species (about 4 μg m−3, 2 μg m−3, 2 μg m−3, and 7 μg m−3, respectively) were measured when aged material was advected from continental Europe, while for air masses originating from the Atlantic, much lower mass concentrations of these species were observed (about 1 μg m−3, 0.2 μg m−3, 0.4 μg m−3, and 1–3 μg m−3, respectively). For the primary emission tracers hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol, black carbon, and NOx it was found that apart from diurnal source strength variations and proximity to emission sources, local meteorology had the largest influence on measured concentrations, with higher wind speeds leading to larger dilution and therefore smaller measured concentrations. Also the shape of particle size distributions was affected by wind speed and air mass origin. Quasi-Lagrangian measurements performed under connected flow conditions between the three stationary sites were used to estimate the influence of the Paris emission plume onto its surroundings, which was found to be rather small. Rough estimates for the impact of the Paris emission plume on the suburban areas can be inferred from these measurements: Volume mixing ratios of 1–14 ppb of NOx, and upper limits for mass concentrations of about 1.5 μg m−3 of black carbon and of about 3 μg m−3 of hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol can be deduced which originate from both, local emissions and the overall Paris emission plume. The secondary aerosol particle phase species were found to be not significantly influenced by the Paris megacity, indicating their regional origin. The submicron aerosol mass concentrations of particulate sulphate, nitrate, and ammonium measured during time periods when air masses were advected from eastern central Europe were found to be similar to what has been found from other measurement campaigns in Paris and south-central France for this type of air mass origin, indicating that the results presented here are also more generally valid.
ACTRIS ACSM intercomparison - Part 1: Reproducibility of concentration and fragment results from 13 individual Quadrupole Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitors (Q-ACSM) and consistency with co-located instruments
2015, Crenn, V., Sciare, J., Croteau, P.L., Verlhac, S., Fröhlich, R., Belis, C.A., Aas, W., Äijälä, M., Alastuey, A., Artiñano, B., Baisnée, D., Bonnaire, N., Bressi, M., Canagaratna, M., Canonaco, F., Carbone, C., Cavalli, F., Coz, E., Cubison, M.J., Esser-Gietl, J.K., Green, D.C., Gros, V., Heikkinen, L., Herrmann, H., Lunder, C., Minguillón, M.C., Močnik, G., O'Dowd, C.D., Ovadnevaite, J., Petit, J.-E., Petralia, E., Poulain, L., Priestman, M., Riffault, V., Ripoll, A., Sarda-Estève, R., Slowik, J.G., Setyan, A., Wiedensohler, A., Baltensperger, U., Prévôt, A.S.H., Jayne, J.T., Favez, O.
As part of the European ACTRIS project, the first large Quadrupole Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (Q-ACSM) intercomparison study was conducted in the region of Paris for 3 weeks during the late-fall – early-winter period (November–December 2013). The first week was dedicated to the tuning and calibration of each instrument, whereas the second and third were dedicated to side-by-side comparison in ambient conditions with co-located instruments providing independent information on submicron aerosol optical, physical, and chemical properties. Near real-time measurements of the major chemical species (organic matter, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and chloride) in the non-refractory submicron aerosols (NR-PM1) were obtained here from 13 Q-ACSM. The results show that these instruments can produce highly comparable and robust measurements of the NR-PM1 total mass and its major components. Taking the median of the 13 Q-ACSM as a reference for this study, strong correlations (r2 > 0.9) were observed systematically for each individual Q-ACSM across all chemical families except for chloride for which three Q-ACSMs showing weak correlations partly due to the very low concentrations during the study. Reproducibility expanded uncertainties of Q-ACSM concentration measurements were determined using appropriate methodologies defined by the International Standard Organization (ISO 17025, 1999) and were found to be 9, 15, 19, 28, and 36 % for NR-PM1, nitrate, organic matter, sulfate, and ammonium, respectively. However, discrepancies were observed in the relative concentrations of the constituent mass fragments for each chemical component. In particular, significant differences were observed for the organic fragment at mass-to-charge ratio 44, which is a key parameter describing the oxidation state of organic aerosol. Following this first major intercomparison exercise of a large number of Q-ACSMs, detailed intercomparison results are presented, along with a discussion of some recommendations about best calibration practices, standardized data processing, and data treatment.