Articles | Volume 23, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10325-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10325-2023
Research article
 | 
15 Sep 2023
Research article |  | 15 Sep 2023

Source apportionment study on particulate air pollution in two high-altitude Bolivian cities: La Paz and El Alto

Valeria Mardoñez, Marco Pandolfi, Lucille Joanna S. Borlaza, Jean-Luc Jaffrezo, Andrés Alastuey, Jean-Luc Besombes, Isabel Moreno R., Noemi Perez, Griša Močnik, Patrick Ginot, Radovan Krejci, Vladislav Chrastny, Alfred Wiedensohler, Paolo Laj, Marcos Andrade, and Gaëlle Uzu

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Cited articles

Aliaga, D., Sinclair, V. A., Andrade, M., Artaxo, P., Carbone, S., Kadantsev, E., Laj, P., Wiedensohler, A., Krejci, R., and Bianchi, F.: Identifying source regions of air masses sampled at the tropical high-altitude site of Chacaltaya using WRF-FLEXPART and cluster analysis, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16453–16477, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16453-2021, 2021. 
Amato, F., Pandolfi, M., Escrig, A., Querol, X., Alastuey, A., Pey, J., Perez, N., and Hopke, P. K.: Quantifying road dust resuspension in urban environment by Multilinear Engine: A comparison with PMF2, Atmos. Environ., 43, 2770–2780, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2009.02.039, 2009. 
Amato, F., Viana, M., Richard, A., Furger, M., Prévôt, A. S. H., Nava, S., Lucarelli, F., Bukowiecki, N., Alastuey, A., Reche, C., Moreno, T., Pandolfi, M., Pey, J., and Querol, X.: Size and time-resolved roadside enrichment of atmospheric particulate pollutants, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 2917–2931, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-2917-2011, 2011. 
Belis, C. A., Pernigotti, D., Karagulian, F., Pirovano, G., Larsen, B., Gerboles, M., and Hopke, P.: A new methodology to assess the performance and uncertainty of source apportionment models in intercomparison exercises, Atmos. Environ., 119, 35–44, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2015.08.002, 2015. 
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Short summary
La Paz and El Alto are two fast-growing, high-altitude Bolivian cities forming the second-largest metropolitan area in the country. The sources of particulate matter (PM) in this conurbation were not previously investigated. This study identified 11 main sources of PM, of which dust and vehicular emissions stand out as the main ones. The influence of regional biomass combustion and local waste combustion was also observed, with the latter being a major source of hazardous compounds.
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