You are here:
Source Identification of PM2.5 in Steubenville, Ohio Using a Hybrid Method for Highly Time-resolved Data
Citation:
Vedantham, R., M. Landis, D. Olson, AND P. Pancras. Source Identification of PM2.5 in Steubenville, Ohio Using a Hybrid Method for Highly Time-resolved Data. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Indianapolis, IN, 48(3):1718-1726, (2014).
Impact/Purpose:
The National Exposure Research Laboratory′s (NERL′s) 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:
A new source-type identification method, Reduction and Species Clustering Using Episodes (ReSCUE), was developed to exploit the temporal synchronicity between species to form clusters of species that vary together. High time-resolution (30 min) PM2.5 sampling was conducted for a month during the summer of 2006 in Steubenville, OH, a non-attainment area for fine particulate matter (PM2.5) by U.S. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). When the data were evaluated, the species clusters from ReSCUE matched extremely well with the source types identified by EPA Unmix proving that ReSCUE to be a valuable tool in identifying source types. Results from EPA Unmix show that contributions to PM2.5 are mostly from iron/steel manufacturing (36% ± 9%), crustal matter (33% ± 11%), coal combustion (11% ± 19%) and residual oil burning (15% ± 12%). More importantly, ReSCUE was useful in detecting tenuous associations between some species and source types in the results derived by EPA Unmix.
URLs/Downloads:
FINAL FINAL SOURCE_IDENTIFICATION_OF_PM2_5_IN_STEUBENVILLE_OHIO_USING_A_HYBRID_METHOD_FOR_HIGHLY_TIME-RESOLVED_DATA_SUBMISSION_4_CLEAN.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 623.441 KB, about PDF)FINAL FINAL SUPPORTING_INFORMATION_RESCUE_SUBMISSION_4_CLEAN.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 1076.853 KB, about PDF)
Environmental Science & Technology
