Characterization of non-refractory (NR) PM1 and source apportionment of organic aerosol in Krakow, Poland

Krakow is routinely affected by very high air pollution levels, especially during the winter months. Although a lot of effort has been made to characterize ambient aerosol, there is a lack of online and long-term measurements of non-refractory aerosol. Our measurements at the AGH University of Science and Technology provide the online long-term chemical composition of ambient submicron particulate matter (PM1) between January 2018 and April 2019. Here we report the chemical characterization of non-refractory submicron aerosol and source apportionment of the organic fraction by positive matrix factorization (PMF). In contrast to other long-term source apportionment studies, we let a small PMF window roll over the dataset instead of performing PMF over the full dataset or on separate seasons. In this way, the seasonal variation in the source profiles can be captured. The uncertainties in the PMF solutions are addressed by the bootstrap resampling strategy and the random a-value approach for constrained factors. We observe clear seasonal patterns in the concentration and composition of PM1, with high concentrations during the winter months and lower concentrations during the summer months. Organics are the dominant species throughout the campaign. Five organic aerosol (OA) factors are resolved, of which three are of a primary nature (hydrocarbon-like OA (HOA), biomass burning OA (BBOA) and coal combustion OA (CCOA)) and two are of a secondary nature (more oxidized oxygenated OA (MO-OOA) and less oxidized oxygenated OA (LO-OOA)). While HOA contributes on average 8.6 % +/- 2.3 % throughout the campaign, the solid-fuel-combustion-related BBOA and CCOA show a clear seasonal trend with average contributions of 10.4 % +/- 2.7 % and 14.1 %, +/- 2.1 %, respectively. Not only BBOA but also CCOA is associated with residential heating because of the pronounced yearly cycle where the highest contributions are observed during wintertime. Throughout the campaign, the OOA can be separated into MO-OOA and LO-OOA with average contributions of 38.4 % +/- 8.4 % and 28.5 % +/- 11.2 %, respectively.

Automated summary

The study found that Krakow's air quality is greatly impacted during the winter months, mainly due to organic aerosols. High concentrations of PM1 were observed in winter, while they decreased in summer. The research analyzed the contributions of different sources to organic aerosols.