Source apportionment of PM2.5 in Seoul, Korea

PM2.5 samples were collected at a centrally located urban monitoring site in Seoul, Korea, every third day from March 2003 to December 2006 and analyzed for their chemical constituents. Sources were identified using positive matrix factorization (PMF). A total of 393 samples were obtained during the sampling period, and 20 chemical species were measured. Nine PM2.5 source categories were identified providing physically realistic profiles and interesting insights into the source contributions to the ambient mass concentrations. The major contributors of PM2.5 were secondary nitrate (20.9%), secondary sulfate (20.5%), gasoline-fueled vehicles (17.2%), and biomass burning (12.1%), with lesser contributions from diesel emissions (8.1%), soil (7.4%), industry (6.7%), road salt and two-stroke vehicles (5.1%), and aged sea salt (2.2%). PM2.5 levels in Seoul were influenced by both local urban activities and regional-scale transport. Conditional probability function (CPF) results identified possible source directions of local sources such as motor vehicles (gasoline and diesel), industry, and road salt. Potential source contribution function (PSCF) results showed that possible source areas contributing to the elevated secondary particle concentrations (sulfate and nitrate) in Seoul to be the major industrial areas in China.