Abstract

Civil aviation is fast-growing, mainly driven by the developing economies and globalization. Despite the increased attention given to aircraft emissions at ground level and air pollution in the vicinity of airports, the chemical and physical characterization of the airborne particulate matter has not been fully elucidated and the role of plume aging on its mass and composition is largely unknown. The project CHEERS (Chemical and Physical Properties and Source Apportionment of Airport Emissions in the context of European Air Quality Directives) aims to investigate the impacts of major airports upon local air quality and the apportionment of those impacts to aircraft, road traffic and other emission sources typical of large cities holding large airports. This study investigates the contribution of the Airport of Venice (NE Italy) to black carbon, total particle number concentrations and particle number size distributions over a large size range: 14 nm to 20 μm. Particle size spectra were used as input for a positive matrix factorisation receptor model aiming to identify and quantify the main potential sources of particles. Results revealed no significantly elevated levels of black carbon and particle number concentration, but identified distinct diurnal profiles. Eight factors were apportioned by receptor model analysis and interpreted as probable sources according to the size profiles, directional association, diurnal variation, road and airport traffic volumes and their relationships to micro-meteorology and air pollutants.