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Aerosol Mass Spectrometry Measurements at the Pittsburgh EPA Supersite--Insights on Particle Composition, Sources, and Nucleation Bursts

Qi Zhang, Jose-Luis Jimenez, Manjula Canagaratna, Doug Worsnop

An Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) was deployed at the Pittsburgh EPA Supersite during September 2002, as part of the Pittsburgh Air Quality Study (PAQS). The main objectives of this deployment were to characterize the concentration and size distributions of volatile and semi-volatile fine airborne particulate matter with high time resolution and to investigate the formation and growth of ultrafine particles during nucleation events frequently observed at this site. Preliminary results will be presented including 1) the total mass concentrations, time variation, and size-resolved mass distributions of ammonium, nitrate, sulfate and organic compounds; 2) the evolution of particle sizes and composition during two nucleation events; and 3) comparisons of the AMS results with those collected by co-located instruments.