Source apportionment of PM2.5 at the coastal area in Korea

In this study, we analyzed the chemical composition of fine particulate matter 2.5μm or less (PM2.5) collected at Incheon, the coastal area in Seoul, Korea every third day from June 2009 to May 2010. Based on the analyzed chemical species in the PM2.5 samples, the sources of PM2.5 were identified using a positive matrix factorization (PMF). Nine sources of PM2.5 were determined from PMF analysis. The major sources of PM2.5 were secondary nitrate (25.4%), secondary sulfate (19.0%), motor vehicle 1 (14.8%) with a lesser contribution from industry (8.5%), motor vehicle 2 (8.2%), biomass burning (6.1%), soil (6.1%), combustion and copper production emissions (6.1%), and sea salt (5.9%). From a paired t-test, it was found that yellow sand samples were characterized as having higher contribution from soil sources (p