Study on the seasonal variation and source apportionment of PM₁₀ in Harbin, China

The atmospheric respirable particulate matter (PM₁₀) from four typical districts of Harbin was collected in four seasons. By analyzing the samples, we got the spatial distribution and seasonal variation of 20 elements. Besides, the sources of PM₁₀ were identified by means of enrichment factor (EF) analysis and chemical mass balance (CMB) receptor model. The results indicated that Cu, Pb, S, Zn, As, and Cd came mainly from anthropogenic sources, which varied evidently with season and space; Al, Ba, Ca, Cr, K, Mg, Mn, V, and Sr came mainly from natural sources, but we can not rule out the possibility of contamination from anthropogenic sources; Ti, Na, and Si were attributed mainly from natural sources. Results from CMB receptor model indicated that major sources in Harbin were traffic dusts, road dusts, coal burning dusts and dusts from petrochemical plants. Among these sources, the traffic dusts contributed the highest ratio in all seasons, road dusts ranked the second in spring, dusts from petrochemical plants ranked the second in summer and coal burning dusts ranked the second in winter.