Nitrate loss associated with Federal Reference Method

The 24-h PM2.5 mass, measured by the Federal Reference Method (FRM) designated by EPA, reports the bulk PM2.5 mass retained on a single channel sampler with Teflon or Quartz filters. Semivolatile species such as nitrate can be lost from the Teflon filter during sampling and equilibration processes, and the FRM measurements may not reflect true ambient concentrations of total PM2.5. Consequently, FRM PM2.5 can be problematic when used for evaluating the fidelity of air quality models, especially for domains where particulate nitrate is a dominant contributor. In order to account for this discrepancy, a thermodynamic adjustment method was developed by EPA to determine the retained nitrate based upon the temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH). The nitrate adjustment method was evaluated for the eastern US where summertime is characterized by hot and humid weather and sulfate particles are the dominant inorganic contributor. Potential differences exist for applications to California due to its different PM2.5 composition and meteorology. In this study we, (1) evaluate EPA's nitrate adjustment method for California where particulate nitrate is a major contributor to total PM2.5 mass and (2) apply this method to adjusting simulated PM2.5 by the Community Multiscale Air Quality Model(CMAQ) over the California domain. The adjusted CMAQ outputs are then compared to the observed total PM2.5. The positive biases between CMAQ and observed PM2.5 can be largely explained by evaporative loss of nitrate on filters.