Multi-year chemical composition of the fine-aerosol fraction in Athens, Greece, with emphasis on the contribution of residential heating in wintertime

Theodosi, Christina; Tsagkaraki, Maria; Zarmpas, Pavlos; Grivas, Georgios; Liakakou, Eleni; Paraskevopoulou, Despina; Lianou, Maria; Gerasopoulos, Evangelos; Mihalopoulos, Nikolaos

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14371-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14371-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

CHemistry and AeRosols Mediterranean EXperiments (ChArMEx)...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14371-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 19

Research article

|

09 Oct 2018

Research article |

| 09 Oct 2018

Multi-year chemical composition of the fine-aerosol fraction in Athens, Greece, with emphasis on the contribution of residential heating in wintertime

Christina Theodosi, Maria Tsagkaraki, Pavlos Zarmpas, Georgios Grivas, Eleni Liakakou, Despina Paraskevopoulou, Maria Lianou, Evangelos Gerasopoulos, and Nikolaos Mihalopoulos

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Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Interactive comment', Anonymous Referee #2, 01 May 2018
- AC1: 'Response to RC1', Christina Theodosi, 26 Jun 2018
RC2: 'Referee comment', Anonymous Referee #3, 07 May 2018
- AC2: 'Response to RC2', Christina Theodosi, 26 Jun 2018
RC3: 'review of Thedosi et al. paper', Anonymous Referee #1, 22 May 2018
- AC3: 'Response to RC3', Christina Theodosi, 26 Jun 2018
EC1: 'EDITORIAL COMMENT', Xavier Querol, 08 Jun 2018
- AC4: 'Response to EC1', Christina Theodosi, 26 Jun 2018
- AC5: 'Response to EC1', Christina Theodosi, 26 Jun 2018

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Christina Theodosi on behalf of the Authors (14 Jul 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (16 Jul 2018) by Xavier Querol

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (25 Jul 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The aim of this study is, as reflected in the title, the “multiyear chemical composition of the fine aerosol fraction in Athens, with emphasis on winter time residential heating”.
In the last years, the contribution of domestic heating to particulate matter in Athens is a major concern. Thus, recent papers by the research group authoring the present paper, performed at the same site and covering part of the study period, such as those cited in the manuscript (Gratsea et al., 2017, Fourtziou et al., 2017, Stavroulas et al., 2018) or other not referenced (Kalogridis et al. 2018), already demonstrated the importance of the contribution of wood burning in the Great Athens Area.
As a novelty the present paper presents a complete chemical characterization of PM2.5 for a longer period, covering from December 2013 till March 2016. A PMF was applied for the winter periods. The results and conclusions obtained can be considered of interest for publication in ACP.
In a previous review I suggested applying the PMF for the complete database, considering the whole sampling period. As stated in the answers to reviewers, the authors “have run models for the combined winter-summer dataset and did not identify further viable factors of significant contribution”. I still consider that a PMF covering the whole period will provide valuable information on sources and composition of PM2.5 in the study area. I would suggest to indicate in the text that this exercise was done and to include the results obtained in the supplementary.
For some elements, authors did analyze the whole fraction (soluble and insoluble, ICP-OES analysis form the acidic digestion) and the soluble fraction. However they only used the soluble fraction for the interpretation. In the previous revision I suggested to use also the insoluble fraction for interpretation but authors decide not to include it for no increasing the length of the text. I’d like to highlight that the average concentration of the insoluble Ca was 585 ng/m3 (as deduced form Table1) being the fifth contributor to PM2.5 (after OC, EC, sulfate and ammonium). Including both the insoluble and the soluble fractions of Ca in the PMF would probably improve the identification of sources.
Did the authors evidence a time variation in the contribution of the biomass source to PM2.5 along the study period comparing the different winter periods? Do these results agree with those obtained from the aethalometers? Given the longer period covered by this paper, this can be a novel input compared with the other studies in the same topic in the area.
Minor corrections
I suggest modifying the title by: the “multiyear chemical composition of PM2.5 in Athens, with emphasis on the contribution of residential heating in winter time”. I believe this is more appropriate.
Page 5, Line 22. Please indicate the period corresponding to the concentration of sulfate.
Page 9, lines 6-7. Higher levels of nitrate during night in the SP periods are not enough to conclude a major origin of nitrate related to heating.
Page 12, line 12. The paper by Kalogridis et al. 2018 determined a contribution of BB to eBC of around 30% for the winter 2014-2015. You may include this reference here.

References
Kalogridis, A.-C., Vratolis, S., Liakakou, E., Gerasopoulos, E., Mihalopoulos, N. and Eleftheriadis, K.: Assessment of wood burning versus fossil fuel contribution to wintertime black carbon and carbon monoxide concentrations in Athens, Greece, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18(14), 10219–10236, doi:10.5194/acp-18-10219-2018, 2018.

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RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (05 Aug 2018)

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (14 Aug 2018) by Xavier Querol

AR by Christina Theodosi on behalf of the Authors (13 Sep 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (17 Sep 2018) by Xavier Querol

AR by Christina Theodosi on behalf of the Authors (19 Sep 2018) Author's response Manuscript

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Short summary

A long-term estimation of the chemical composition of PM_2.5, a chemical mass closure exercise, and the source identification of particulate matter took place at an urban background site of central Athens, allowing us to further assess the impact of residential heating as a source of air pollution over Athens. PM_2.5, EC, POM, NO₃^-, C₂O₄^2-, nssK⁺, Pb, and Cd were increased by up to a factor of 4 at night compared to during the day, highlighting the importance of heating on air quality in Athens.