Abstract. Fine particles were sampled from 9 November to 11 December 2016 and 22 May to 24 June 2017 as part of the Atmospheric Pollution and Human Health in
a Chinese Megacity (APHH-China) field campaigns in urban Beijing, China. Inorganic ions, trace elements, organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), and organic compounds, including
biomarkers, hopanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), n-alkanes, and fatty acids, were determined for source apportionment in this study. Carbonaceous components contributed
on average 47.2 % and 35.2 % of total reconstructed PM2.5 during the winter and summer campaigns, respectively. Secondary
inorganic ions (sulfate, nitrate, ammonium; SNA) accounted for 35.0 % and 45.2 % of total PM2.5 in winter and summer. Other
components including inorganic ions (K+, Na+, Cl−), geological minerals, and trace metals only contributed 13.2 %
and 12.4 % of PM2.5 during the winter and summer campaigns. Fine OC was explained by seven primary sources (industrial and residential
coal burning, biomass burning, gasoline and diesel vehicles, cooking, and vegetative detritus) based on a chemical mass balance (CMB) receptor model. It
explained an average of 75.7 % and 56.1 % of fine OC in winter and summer, respectively. Other (unexplained) OC was compared with the
secondary OC (SOC) estimated by the EC-tracer method, with correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.58 and 0.73 and slopes of 1.16 and 0.80 in
winter and summer, respectively. This suggests that the unexplained OC by the CMB model was mostly associated with SOC. PM2.5 apportioned by the CMB model
showed that the SNA and secondary organic matter were the two highest contributors to PM2.5. After these, coal combustion and biomass
burning were also significant sources of PM2.5 in winter. The CMB results were also compared with results from the positive matrix
factorization (PMF) analysis of co-located aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) data. The CMB model was found to resolve more primary organic aerosol (OA) sources than AMS-PMF,
but the latter could apportion secondary OA sources. The AMS-PMF results for major components, such as coal combustion OC and oxidized OC, correlated
well with the results from the CMB model. However, discrepancies and poor agreements were found for other OC sources, such as biomass burning and cooking,
some of which were not identified in AMS-PMF factors.
Manuscript acp-2020-1020-version2 Source Apportionment of Fine Aerosol at an Urban Site of Beijing using a Chemical Mass Balance Model by Jingsha Xu et al.
