Hydrocarbon-like and oxygenated organic aerosols in Pittsburgh: insights into sources and processes of organic aerosols

Abstract. A recently developed algorithm (Zhang et al., 2005) has been applied to deconvolve the mass spectra of organic aerosols acquired with the Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) in Pittsburgh during September 2002. The results are used here to characterize the mass concentrations, size distributions, and mass spectra of hydrocarbon-like and oxygenated organic aerosol (HOA and OOA, respectively). HOA accounts for 34% of the measured organic aerosol mass and OOA accounts for 66%. The mass concentrations of HOA demonstrate a prominent diurnal profile that peaks in the morning during the rush hour and decreases with the rise of the boundary layer. The diurnal profile of OOA is relatively flat and resembles those…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: CAREER, 0449815
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Award: NNG04GA67G
• CU
  City University of New York
• IT
  Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
• UO
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign