Abstract

Research Category: Particulate Matter "Supersites" Program (99-NCERQA-X1)

Title: The Pittsburgh PM Supersite Program: A Multi-Disciplinary Consortium for Atmospheric Aerosol Research

Investigators: Spyros Pandis, Cliff Davidson, Allen Robinson (Carnegie Mellon Univ.), Anthony Wexler, Murray Johnston (Univ. of Delaware), Wolfgang Rogge (Florida Intern. Univ.), Mark Hernandez (Univ. of Colorado), Jeff Collett (Colorado State Univ.), Susanne Hering (Aerosol Dynamics), Jonathan Kahl (Univ. Wisconsin), Barbara Turpin (Rutgers Univ.), John Ondov, Steven Buckley (Univ. of Maryland), RJ Lee, Inc., Kevin Crist (Ohio University), Antonio Miguel (UCLA), Delbert Eatough (Brigham Young University), Urs Baltensperger (Paul Scherrer Inst.), Jonathan Samet (Johns Hopkins), Richard Sextro (Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab), Bill Aljoe (DOE-NETL).

Institutions: Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware - Florida International University, Miami, Florida -University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado - Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado - Aerosol Dynamics, Berkeley, California - University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey - University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland - RJ Lee, Monroeville, Pennsylvania - Ohio University, Athens, Ohio - UCLA, Los Angeles, California - Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah - Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland - Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland - Lawrence Berkeley Nat. Lab, Berkeley, California - DOE/NETL, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Project Period: January, 2000 - December, 2004

Project Cost: $3,400,000

Project Summary: Airborne particulate matter (PM) continues to pose serious health risks for susceptible members of the U.S. population and for sensitive ecosystems. Design of cost-effective PM control strategies is limited by the lack of understanding of the PM-health effects links which is exacerbated by a paucity of physiological data, the difficulty of establishing the PM source-receptor relationships, and finally the limitations of existing instrumentation for PM measurements. A comprehensive multidisciplinary study is proposed for the Pittsburgh region, which will address all of the above issues.

The proposed hypothesis-driven program will have six components:

• Ambient monitoring in a central supersite and a set of satellite sites in the region (leveraged against Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE/NETL) funds).
• An epidemiological study (to be leveraged against funds from NIH and others).
• An indoor monitoring study (extension of work currently funded by DOE and EPA).
• An instrument development and evaluation study (leveraged against current NSF and other EPA funds).
• A comprehensive modeling component (currently funded by the EPA STAR program).
• A data analysis and synthesis component (hypothesis testing).

In addition to the above resources the program leverages funds and resources from local industry (Bayer), local government (Allegheny County Health Department), state government (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection), and cost sharing by Carnegie Mellon University.

The objectives of the EPA-funded part of the Pittsburgh Supersite Program are:

• to characterize PM (size, surface, and volume distribution, chemical composition as a function of size and on a single particle basis, morphology, and temporal and spatial variability) in the Pittsburgh region;
• to quantify the impact of the various sources (transportation, power plants, biogenic, etc.) to the PM concentrations in the area;
• and to develop and evaluate the next generation of atmospheric aerosol monitoring techniques (single particle measurements, continuous composition measurements, ultrafine aerosol measurements, improved organic component characterization, etc.).

Combining the ambient monitoring study supported by the EPA Supersites program with the proposed indoor, health, and modeling studies (funded by other sources) will allow the proposed program to:

• elucidate the links between PM characteristics and their health impacts;
• quantify the relationship between indoor and outdoor concentrations;
• and quantify the responses of PM characteristics to changes in emissions to support SIP development.

These objectives address all the goals of the EPA Supersites Program and will be achieved through the investigation of approximately twenty hypotheses addressing issues in ambient aerosol characterization, measurement methods, atmospheric processes, aerosol properties, source-receptor relationships, health effects, and indoor exposure.

The measurement program will feature a central supersite located in Pittsburgh near the CMU campus and a set of satellite sites. Baseline monitoring is planned for an 18-month period that will include detailed characterization of PM size, surface, and volume distributions, chemical composition as a function of size, continuous single-particle size and composition measurements, organic aerosol speciation, measurement of the distribution and composition of ultrafine aerosols, semi-continuous measurements of metals, nitrate, sulfate, and aerosol carbon, measurements of bioaerosols, aerosol precursors, cloud and fog composition in the area, aerosol optical and hygroscopic properties, and meteorological variables. Three intensive sampling periods are planned to examine temporal variations and to collect detailed data for model testing and validation. The data from this project will be made available through an easily accessible electronic database. The Supersite team with the help of the CMU Computer Science School will post the available raw data (real-time and continuous measurements) and the remaining data as soon as they become available to a web site accessible by the EPA researchers. This rapid exchange of information will facilitate the collaboration with our EPA colleagues. Throughout the program, we will look for opportunities to minimize adverse environmental effects of the sampling effort without compromising the quality of the data.

The following benefits are expected from the Pittsburgh Supersite program:

• Comprehensive characterization of the PM in the Pittsburgh area. This will include, size distribution, composition as a function of size and for individual particles, temporal and spatial variation, optical and hygroscopic properties, and morphology.
• Development and evaluation of state-of-the-art instrumentation and measurement approaches (single particle instruments, continuous measurement approaches, etc.)
• Apportionment of the measured PM (both primary and secondary) to sources as a function of time. These results should be valuable for SIP development.
• Establishment of links between the PM characteristics and health effects in the study area.
• Quantification of the relationship between indoor and outdoor PM levels in the region.
• Development of a dataset (in coordination with the other Supersites) for the evaluation of the approaches used for the description of PM processes in atmospheric chemistry models.