The APAD and ASFID: long-term fine and coarse ambient particulate matter and source fingerprint databases for the Asia-Pacific region

Ambient particulate matter (APM) pollution, often generically referred to as smog or haze, is a global problem impacting every country and region in the world to varying degrees. Countries within the rapidly developing Asia-Pacific region have much higher levels of APM compared with many internationally recognised health goals. This paper presents two new aerosol databases compiled as the result of a long-term project spanning 15 years and involving 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The first database, named the Asia-Pacific Aerosol Database (APAD), contains the elemental concentration and associated error and minimum detectable limits (MDL) for 14,016 APM samples collected between 2002 and 2015. The second database, named the Asia-Pacific Source Fingerprint Database (ASFID), contains receptor source fingerprints and source apportionment solutions obtained by each country from their APAD dataset using positive matrix factorisation (PMF) methods. © 2016 The Clean Air Society of Australia and New Zealand

Keywords

Particulates, Air pollution, Asia, Data processing, X-ray fluorescence analysis, Factorization

Citation

Atanacio, A. J., Cohen, D. D., Begum, B. A., Ni, B., Pandit, G. G., Sahu, S. K., Santoso, M., Lestiani, DD., Lim, J.M, Rahman, S.A., Elias, M. S., Shagjjamba, D., Markwirz, A., Waheed, S., Siddique, N., Pabroa, P.C., Santos, F.L., Seneviratne, M.C.S., Handagiripathira, L., Wimolwattanapun, W., Vuong, T.B. & Karydas, A. (2016). The APAD and ASFID: long-term fine and coarse ambient particulate matter and source fingerprint databases for the Asia-Pacific region. Air Quality and Climate Change, 50(3), 41. Retrieved from: https://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=613917581240770;res=IELENG