References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-11-13047-2011

Seasonal variations in aerosol particle composition at the puy-de-Dôme research station in France

Freney

E. J.

¹ Sellegri

¹ Canonaco

² Boulon

¹ Hervo

¹ Weigel

¹ ³ Pichon

J. M.

¹ Colomb

¹ Prévôt

A. S. H.

² Laj

¹ ⁴

Laboratoire de Météorologie Physique, CNRS-Université Blaise Pascal, UMR6016, 63117, Clermont Ferrand, France

Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, Paul Scherrer Institut, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland

now at: Institute for Physics of the Atmosphere, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

now at: Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, CNRS UMR5183, Université Joseph Frourier Grenoble 1, Saint Martin d'Héres, France

21 12 2011

11 24 13047 13059

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/13047/2011/acp-11-13047-2011.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/13047/2011/acp-11-13047-2011.pdf

Detailed investigations of the chemical and microphysical properties of atmospheric aerosol particles were performed at the puy-de-Dôme (pdD) research station (1465 m) in autumn (September and October 2008), winter (February and March 2009), and summer (June 2010) using a compact Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (cToF-AMS). Over the three campaigns, the average mass concentrations of the non-refractory submicron particles ranged from 10 μg m−3 up to 27 μg m−3. Highest nitrate and ammonium mass concentrations were measured during the winter and during periods when marine modified airmasses were arriving at the site, whereas highest concentrations of organic particles were measured during the summer and during periods when continental airmasses arrived at the site. The measurements reported in this paper show that atmospheric particle composition is strongly influenced by both the season and the origin of the airmass. The total organic mass spectra were analysed using positive matrix factorisation to separate individual organic components contributing to the overall organic particle mass concentrations. These organic components include a low volatility oxygenated organic aerosol particle (LV-OOA) and a semi-volatile organic aerosol particle (SV-OOA). Correlations of the LV-OOA components with fragments of m/z 60 and m/z 73 (mass spectral markers of wood burning) during the winter campaign suggest that wintertime LV-OOA are related to aged biomass burning emissions, whereas organic aerosol particles measured during the summer are likely linked to biogenic sources. Equivalent potential temperature calculations, gas-phase, and LIDAR measurements define whether the research site is in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) or in the free troposphere (FT)/residual layer (RL). We observe that SV-OOA and nitrate particles are associated with air masses arriving from the PBL where as particle composition measured from RL/FT airmasses contain high mass fractions of sulphate and LV-OOA. This study provides unique insights into the effects of season and airmass variability on regional aerosol particles measured at an elevated site.

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