title: Assessment of PM2.5 sources and their corresponding level of uncertainty in a coastal urban area using EPA PMF 5.0 enhanced diagnostics.
abstract: Datasets that include only the PM elemental composition and no other important constituents such as ions and OC, should be treated carefully when used for source apportionment. This work is demonstrating how a source apportionment study utilizing PMF 5.0 enhanced diagnostic tools can achieve an improved solution with documented levels of uncertainty for such a dataset. The uncertainty of the solution is rarely reported in source apportionment studies or it is reported partially. Reporting the uncertainty of the solution is very important especially in the case of small datasets. PM2.5 samples collected in Patras during the year 2011 were used. The concentrations of 22 elements (Z=11-33) were determined using PIXE. Source apportionment analysis revealed that PM2.5 emission sources were biomass burning (11%), sea salt (8%), shipping emissions (10%), vehicle emissions (33%), mineral dust (2%) and secondary sulfates (33%) while unaccounted mass was 3%. Although Patras city center is located in a very close proximity to the city's harbor, the contribution of shipping originating emissions was never before quantified. As rotational stability is hard to be achieved when a small dataset is used the rotational stability of the solution was thoroughly evaluated. A number of constraints were applied to the solution in order to reduce rotational ambiguity.
authors.affiliation: E.R.L., Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences & Technology, Energy & Safety, N.C.S.R. Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Attiki, Greece. Electronic address: manosman@ipta.demokritos.gr.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Manousakas
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Patras, 26500 Patras, Achaia, Greece.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Papaefthymiou
authors.affiliation: E.R.L., Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences & Technology, Energy & Safety, N.C.S.R. Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Attiki, Greece.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Diapouli
authors.affiliation: Physics Section, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Migliori
authors.affiliation: Physics Section, International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria; Institute of Nuclear and Particle Physics, NCSR "Demokritos", 153 10 Ag. Paraskevi, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Karydas
authors.affiliation: Ruder Boskovic Institute, Bijenicka 54, P.O. Box 180, 10002 Zagreb, Croatia.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bogdanovic-Radovic
authors.affiliation: E.R.L., Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences & Technology, Energy & Safety, N.C.S.R. Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Attiki, Greece.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eleftheriadis
keywords: PM2.5; PMF 5.0; PMF uncertainty; Source apportionment