Articles | Volume 18, issue 24
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17819-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17819-2018
Research article
 | 
14 Dec 2018
Research article |  | 14 Dec 2018

Principal component analysis of summertime ground site measurements in the Athabasca oil sands with a focus on analytically unresolved intermediate-volatility organic compounds

Travis W. Tokarek, Charles A. Odame-Ankrah, Jennifer A. Huo, Robert McLaren, Alex K. Y. Lee, Max G. Adam, Megan D. Willis, Jonathan P. D. Abbatt, Cristian Mihele, Andrea Darlington, Richard L. Mittermeier, Kevin Strawbridge, Katherine L. Hayden, Jason S. Olfert, Elijah G. Schnitzler, Duncan K. Brownsey, Faisal V. Assad, Gregory R. Wentworth, Alex G. Tevlin, Douglas E. J. Worthy, Shao-Meng Li, John Liggio, Jeffrey R. Brook, and Hans D. Osthoff

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Cited articles

Alberta, G. O.: Government of Alberta, oil sands information portal, available at: http://osip.alberta.ca (last access: 23 February 2017), 2017. 
Allen, E. W.: Process water treatment in Canada's oil sands industry: II. A review of emerging technologies, J. Environ. Eng. Sci., 7, 499–524, https://doi.org/10.1139/s08-020, 2008. 
Baray, S., Darlington, A., Gordon, M., Hayden, K. L., Leithead, A., Li, S.-M., Liu, P. S. K., Mittermeier, R. L., Moussa, S. G., O'Brien, J., Staebler, R., Wolde, M., Worthy, D., and McLaren, R.: Quantification of methane sources in the Athabasca Oil Sands Region of Alberta by aircraft mass balance, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 7361–7378, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-7361-2018, 2018. 
Bari, M. and Kindzierski, W. B.: Fifteen-year trends in criteria air pollutants in oil sands communities of Alberta, Canada, Environ. Int., 74, 200–208, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2014.10.009, 2015. 
Bari, M. A. and Kindzierski, W. B.: Ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in Canadian oil sands communities: Levels, sources and potential human health risk, Sci. Total Environ., 595, 828–838, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.04.023, 2017. 
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Measurements of air pollutants at a ground site near Fort McKay in the Athabasca oil sands region in the summer of 2013 are presented. A large number of intermediate-volatility organic compounds (IVOCs) were observed; these molecules were shown previously to generate atmospheric particles downwind of the region. A principal component analysis was performed to identify major pollution source types, including which source(s) is(are) associated with IVOC emissions (e.g., freshly mined bitumen).
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