Cooking Organic Aerosol Drives High PM Events in Wintertime Mineola, NY

ADAM DE GROODT, Emily Barnes Franklin, Joseph Ko, Michael Vermeuel, Trey Maddaleno, Roisin Commane, Dylan Millet, Delphine K. Farmer, Colorado State University

     Abstract Number: 260
     Working Group: Urban Aerosols

Abstract
Understanding the drivers of regulatory exceedances is critical to address the air quality and human health impacts of fine particulate matter (PM1). Regulations targeting industrial and vehicular emissions have successfully reduced some air pollutants such as sulfur compounds, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and black carbon (BC), but have not reduced organic aerosol (OA). OA continues to be a major component of PM in urban environments, affecting air quality and human health. However, aerosol composition and its sources are poorly characterized in the New York metropolitan area during the winter, a season which has substantially different meteorological conditions and potential sources of PM than the more extensively studied summer. To address this, we characterize the composition of refractory and non-refractory PM1 in Mineola NY during the winter to identify sources and drivers of wintertime PM and compare them to summertime observations at the same location. We find that OA dominates both winter (68%) and summer (86%) non-refractory PM1, with non-refractory inorganic PM contributing more to winter (32% vs 14%), and BC contributing 6% of winter PM1 mass. Source apportionment using Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) identifies OA from cooking (COA) drives local high PM events, contributing up to 81% of total OA mass. These findings highlight strong seasonal contrasts in aerosol composition and indicate that cooking emissions are a major contributor to elevated wintertime PM in this urban environment.