A comprehensive characterization of carbonaceous aerosols in St. Louis, Missouri

In order to gain information on the nature of the sources and the patterns of the carbonaceous aerosol samples, a comprehensive analysis of organic aerosols in St. Louis, Missouri was undertaken to provide a detailed characterization of the temporal and seasonal factors impacting carbonaceous aerosol, as well as an assessment of the sources of carbonaceous aerosols in St. Louis. The results are intended to provide input into future health studies and atmospheric modeling studies that seek to mitigate adverse health effects associates with human exposure to atmospheric particulate matter.; Twenty four hour averaged laboratory based fine particle (PM2.5) Elemental Carbon and Organic Carbon (ECOC) measurements, hourly field based PM2.5 ECOC measurements, and 200 daily fine particulate matter organic compound speciation measurements by GC/MS were performed at the St. Louis Supersite located east of the central business district of St. Louis, Missouri. Organic speciation measurements included molecular markers, which provide information on carbonaceous aerosols.; The measurements were used to validate the field based real time ECOC instrument and were used to better understand the sources and atmospheric processes that impact the operationally defined ECOC measurements. The ECOC measurements were also used to characterize the daily and weekly trends of carbonaceous aerosols at the sampling site and were used to identify when local point sources significantly impacted particulate matter concentrations at the site. These measurements, along with the organic speciation measurements, were used to develop screening tools to characterize carbonaceous aerosol plumes that impacted the sampling sites. The organic speciation data was also used for source apportionment calculations that provided a foundation for estimating the amount of organic aerosol mass that was associated with organic aerosol carbon.