Elemental and organic carbon in PM10: a one year measurement campaign within the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme EMEP

摘要

In the present study, ambient aerosol (PM) concentrations ofelemental carbon (EC), organic carbon (OC), and total carbon (TC) arereported for 12 European rural background sites and two urban backgroundsites following a one-year (1 July 2002–1 July 2003) sampling campaignwithin the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme, EMEP). The purpose of the campaign was to assess thefeasibility of performing EC and OC monitoring on a regular basis and toobtain an overview of the spatial and seasonal variability on a regionalscale in Europe.Analyses were performed using the thermal-optical transmission (TOT)instrument from Sunset Lab Inc., operating according to a NIOSH derivedtemperature program. The annual mean mass concentration of EC rangedfrom 0.17±0.19 μg m (mean ± SD) at Birkenes (Norway)to 1.83±1.32 μg m at Ispra (Italy). The correspondingrange for OC was 1.20±1.29 μg m at Mace Head (Ireland) to7.79±6.80 μg m at Ispra. On average, annualconcentrations of EC, OC, and TC were three times higher for ruralbackground sites in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe compared to thosesituated in the Northern and Western parts of Europe. Wintertimeconcentrations of EC and OC were higher than those recorded during summerfor the majority of the sites. Moderate to high Pearson correlationcoefficients () (0.50–0.94) were observed for EC versus OC for thesites investigated. The lowest correlation coefficients were noted for thethree Scandinavian sites: Aspvreten (SE), Birkenes (NO), and Virolahti (FI),and the Slovakian site Stara Lesna, and are suggested to reflect biogenicsources, wild and prescribed fires. This suggestion is supported by the factthat higher concentrations of OC are observed for summer compared to winterfor these sites.For the rural background sites, total carbonaceous material accounted for 30±9%of PM, of which 27±9% could be attributed toorganic matter (OM) and 3.4±1.0% to elemental matter (EM). OM wasfound to be more abundant than SO for sites reporting bothparameters.