Real-time source apportionment of organic aerosols in three European cities

International audienceAtmospheric particulate matter (PM) has direct and indirect effects on public health, ecosystems and climate (IPCC, 2014). At the same time, European countries are still suffering from poor air quality: 70% of air quality monitoring stations within Europe exceed the annual PM2.5 value of the WHO guidelines (10 μg/m3) (European Environment Agency (EEA), 2020). Considering organic aerosol (OA) is one of the major components of PM (Jimenez et al., 2009), the knowledge of OA sources is extremely valuable for policymakers in order to design effective mitigation strategies