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Guidance Document for PMF Applications with the Multilinear Engine
Citation:
NORRIS, G. A., R. VEDANTHAM, K. Wade, P. Zhan, S. Brown, P. Pentti, S. I. EBERLY, AND C. FOLEY. Guidance Document for PMF Applications with the Multilinear Engine. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-09/032 (NTIS PB2009-107895), 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL) Human Exposure and Atmospheric Sciences Division (HEASD) conducts research in support of EPA′s mission to protect human health and the environment. HEASD′s research program supports Goal 1 (Clean Air) and Goal 4 (Healthy People) of EPA′s strategic plan. More specifically, our division conducts research to characterize the movement of pollutants from the source to contact with humans. Our multidisciplinary research program produces Methods, Measurements, and Models to identify relationships between and characterize processes that link source emissions, environmental concentrations, human exposures, and target-tissue dose. The impact of these tools is improved regulatory programs and policies for EPA
Description:
This document serves as a guide for users of the Multilinear Engine version 2 (ME-2) for source apportionment applications utilizing positive matrix factorization (PMF). It aims to educate experienced source apportionment analysts on available ME rotational tools and provides guidance sensitivity analyses. Prior to using ME-2 for PMF, users should be familiar with the PMF model and its applications. Users should also be familiar with the wide body of literature describing PMF and ME-2. In particular, the End User’s Guide (Paatero, 2004) and me2scrip.txt (Paatero, 2002) are useful companions to this document. This document covers technical details and examples using two versions of ME-2. An individual ME-2 license (IL) can be purchased from Pentti Paatero or ME-2 is provided with the EPA distributed PMF 3.0 public license (PL). Both versions of ME-2 have been developed by Pentti Paatero and the version provided with the IL has a more flexible programming format and the PL version has a more restricted structure since it has been developed for EPA PMF software. Presenting two versions of the ME-2 and the associated input files increases the complexity of the document, however, it provides comprehensive explanation and examples of available ME-2 rotational tools.