Wintertime Residential Biomass Burning in Las Vegas, Nevada; Marker Components and Apportionment Methods

We characterized residential biomass burning contributions to fine particle concentrations via multiple methods at Fyfe Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada, during January 2008: with levoglucosan on quartz fiber filters; with water soluble potassium (K+) measured using a particle-into-liquid system with ion chromatography (PILS-IC); and with the fragment C2H4O2+ from an Aerodyne High Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-AMS). A Magee Scientific Aethalometer was also used to determine aerosol absorption at the UV (370 nm) and black carbon (BC, 880 nm) channels, where UV-BC difference is indicative of biomass burning (BB). Levoglucosan and AMS C2H4O2+ measurements were strongly correlated (r2 = 0.92); K+ correlated well with C2H4O2+ (r2 = 0.86) during the evening but not during other times. While K+ may be an indicator of BB, it is not necessarily a unique tracer, as non-BB sources appear to contribute significantly to K+ and can change from day to day. Low correlation was seen between UV-BC difference and other indicators, possibly because of an overwhelming influence of freeway emissions on BC concentrations. Given the sampling location—next to a twelve-lane freeway—urban-scale biomass burning was found to be a surprisingly large source of aerosol: overnight BB organic aerosol contributed between 26% and 33% of the organic aerosol mass.