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Source Apportionment of the Atmospheric Aerosol in Lahore, Pakistan

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Abstract

Samples of airborne particulate matter (PM2.5) were collected at a site in Lahore, Pakistan from November 2005 to January 2006. A total of 129 samples were collected using an Andersen Reference Ambient Air Sampler 2.5-400 sampler and analyzed for major ions, trace metals, and organic and elemental carbon concentrations. The data set was then analyzed by positive matrix factorization (PMF) to identify the possible sources of the atmospheric PM collected in this urban area. Six factors reproduced the PM2.5 sample compositions with meaningful physical interpretation of the resolved factors. The sources included secondary PM, diesel emissions, biomass burning, coal combustion, two-stroke vehicle exhaust, and industrial sources. Diesel and two-stroke vehicles contributed about 36%, biomass burning about 15%, and coal combustion sources around 13% of the PM2.5 mass. Nearly two thirds of the PM2.5 mass is carbonaceous material. Secondary particles contributed about 30% of PM2.5 mass. The conditional probability function (CPF) was then used to help identify likely locations of the sources present in this area. CPF analysis point to the east and northeast, which are directions of urban and industrial areas located across the border near Amritsar, India as the most probable source for high PM2.5 concentration from diesel and two-stroke vehicles exhaust in Lahore. Analysis of those days within three different ranges of PM2.5 concentration shows that most of the measured high PM2.5 mass concentrations were driven by diesel and two-stroke vehicle emissions including the associated primary sulfate. The use of the potential source contribution function (PSCF) to find the source locations of regionally transported particles is inapplicable in situations when high PM2.5 concentrations are dominated by local sources and local meteorology.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation, ATM0503850. One of us (LH) is grateful to the United Nations Development Program and the National Talent Pool for a travel grant to conduct the field campaign in Lahore and the National Talent Pool, Ministry of Labour, Government of Pakistan. We thank Zulfiqar Ali, Salim Khan, M. Mannan, Akhtar Nawaz, and Adil Khan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science and Department of Chemical Engineering, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY, 13699-5810, USA

    Suresh Raja & Philip K. Hopke

  2. Wadsworth Center, NYS Department of Health, Albany, NY, 12001-0509, USA

    Karabi F. Biswas & Liaquat Husain

  3. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, State University of New York, Albany, NY, 12201-0509, USA

    Liaquat Husain

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  1. Suresh Raja
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  2. Karabi F. Biswas
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  3. Liaquat Husain
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  4. Philip K. Hopke
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Correspondence to Philip K. Hopke.

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Raja, S., Biswas, K.F., Husain, L. et al. Source Apportionment of the Atmospheric Aerosol in Lahore, Pakistan. Water Air Soil Pollut 208, 43–57 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0148-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-009-0148-z

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