| Spikes of airborne particulate matter (PM) show up especially late in the afternoon at Sunland Park, New Mexico, one of the three sister cities in the Paso del Notre (PdN) border region. These PM episodes appear to be highly localized within the New Mexico portion of the PdN air quality basin with no known sources in the area.; A study was performed between December 13, 2002 and February 7, 2003 to characterize the composition of PM and identify major PM sources for the evening PM (PM2.5 and PM10) peaks at Sunland Park. Continuous and integrated PM sampling was performed to accomplish this. Continuous 5-minute and 1-hour average PM2.5 mass concentrations were recorded on two TEOMs. Twenty four hour average PM2.5 and PM2.5--10 and 3-hr average time-resolved PM2.5 samples were collected on Teflon and quartz fiber filters using dichotomous air monitors and TEOM/ACCU instruments, respectively, for element, anions, and carbon analyses. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
