CHARACTERIZATION OF AIRBORNE PARTICULATE MATTER IN THESSALONIKI, GREECE .2. A MULTIVARIATE MODELING APPROACH FOR THE SOURCE APPORTIONMENT OF HEAVY-METAL CONCENTRATIONS WITHIN TOTAL SUSPENDED PARTICLES

A receptor modeling approach has been applied to identify and apportio n sources of airborne particulate matter in Thessaloniki, Greece, The absolute principal component analysis source apportionment technique u sed, provided quantitative information regarding both source particle characteristics and impacts. The analysis identified four major source s of heavy metals within total suspended particles (TSP) in the centre of the city: oil burning, pyrometallurgical non-ferrous metal process es, motor vehicles and soil resuspension. Their contributions to TSP e stimated by regression on absolute principal component scores (APCS) w ere 12%, 8%, 5% and 4%, respectively. A similar analysis conducted for a sampling site close to the industrial area identified five major so urces: oil burning, industrial Cr source, soil resuspension, pyrometal lurgical non-ferrous metal processes and motor vehicles with contribut ions 20%, 15%, 9%, 8% and 4%, respectively.