International airport emissions and their impact on local air quality: chemical speciation of ambient aerosols at Madrid–Barajas Airport during the AVIATOR campaign
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: . Madrid-Barajas International Airport (MAD), located in Spanish Capital Madrid, is the fourth-busiest airport in Europe. As part of the AVIATOR campaign, chemical composition of particulate matter and other key pollutants were measured at the airport perimeter during October 2021, to assess the impact of airport emissions on local air quality. A high-fidelity ambient instrumentation system was deployed at Madrid Airport to measure: composition of ambient aerosol and concentrations of black carbon (eBC), carbon dioxide (CO2) carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NOx), sulphur dioxide (SO2), particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10), total hydrocarbon (THC), and total particle number. The average concentration for the entire campaign of eBC, NOx, SO2, PM2.5, PM10, CO and THC at the airport were, 1.07 (µg/m³), 22.7 (µg/m³), 4.10 (µg/m³), 9.35 (µg/m³), 16.43 (µg/m³), 0.23 (mg/m³) and 2.30 (mg/m³) respectively. The source apportionment analysis of the non-refractory organic aerosol (OA) using positive matrix factorisation (PMF) allowed us to discriminate between different sources of pollution, namely: Semi Volatile Oxygenated Organic Aerosol (SV-OOA), Alkane Organic Aerosol (AlkOA), and More Oxidised Oxygenated Organic Aerosol (MO-OOA) source. The results showed that SVOOA and MO-OOA accounts for more than 80 % of the total organic particle mass that was measured near runway at the airport. Trace gases correlate better with AlkOA factor more than SVOOA and MO-OOA which indicate that AlkOA is mainly related to the primary emissions of combustion. Bivariate polar plots were used for the source identification. Significantly higher concentrations of the obtained factors were observed at low wind speeds < 3m/s from the southwest where two of runways, as well as all terminals are located. Higher SO2/NOx and CO/eBC ratios were observed when the winds originating from the northeast where the 18L/36R runways are located. This is attributed to the aircraft influence and the lack of a local road source in the northeast area.
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,725
OpenAlex ID: W4401713793