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Abstract. Size-resolved aerosol chemical compositions were measured continuously for 1.5 years from June 2010 to January 2012 with an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) to characterize the mass and size distributions (MSDs) of major chemical components in submicron particles (approximately PM 1 ) at Mountain Tai (Mt. Tai), an elevated site in central east China. The annual mean mass concentrations of organic, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, and chloride were 11.2, 9.2, 7.2, 5.8, and 0.95 µg m −3 , respectively, which are much higher than those at most mountain sites in the USA and Europe, but lower than those at the nearby surface rural sites in China. A clear seasonality was observed for all major components throughout the study, with low concentration in fall and high in summer, and is believed to be caused by seasonal variations in planetary boundary layer (PBL) height, near surface pollutant concentrations and regional transport processes. Air masses were classified into categories impacted by PBL, lower free troposphere (LFT), new particle formation (NPF), in-cloud processes, and polluted aerosols. Organics dominated the PM 1 mass during the NPF episodes, while sulfate contributed most to PM 1 in cloud events. The average MSDs of particles between 30 and 1000 nm during the entire study for organics, sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium were approximately log-normal with mass median diameters (MMDs) of 539, 585, 542, and 545 nm, respectively. These values are slightly larger than those observed at ground sites within the North China Plain (NCP), likely due to the relative aged and well-mixed aerosol masses at Mt. Tai. There were no obvious differences in MMDs during the PBL, LFT, in-cloud and polluted episodes, but smaller MMDs, especially for organics, were observed during the NPF events. During the PBL, NPF, and polluted episodes, organics accounted for major proportions at smaller modes, and reached 70 % at 100-200 nm particles in the polluted events. In cloud episodes, inorganics contributed 70 % to the whole size range dominated by sulfate, which contributed 40 % to small particles (100-200 nm), while organics occupied 20 %, indicating that sulfate is a critical chemical component in cloud formation. Seven clusters of air masses were classified based on 72 h back-trajectory analysis. The majority of the regionally dispersed aerosols were found to be contributed from short distance mixed aerosols, mostly originated from the south with organics and sulfate as major components. Air masses from long range transport always brought clean and dry aerosols which resulted in low concentrations at Mt. Tai. AMS-PMF (positive matrix factorization) was employed to resolve the subtype of organics. Oxygenic organics aerosols (OAs) occupied 49, 56, 51, and 41 % of OAs in the four seasons respectively, demonstrating that most OA were oxidized in summer due to strong photochemical reactions. Biomass burning OAs (BBOAs) accounted for 34 % of OA in summer, mainly from field burning of agriculture residues, and coal combustion OAs (CCOA...

Abstract. Size-resolved aerosol chemical compositions were measured continuously for one and half years with an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) to characterize the mass and size distributions (MSDs) of each component in bulk, fresh and aged submicron particles (approximately PM1.0) at Mountain Tai, an elevated site in Central East China (CEC) from June 2010 to January 2012. The majority of the regionally-dispersed aerosols were found to be contributed from short distance mixed aerosol, mostly from its south with organics and sulfate as the major components. The annual mean mass concentrations of organics, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium and chloride were 11.2, 9.2, 7.2, 5.8 and 0.95 μg m−3, respectively, which are much lower for organics and sulfate, and slightly lower for nitrate, ammonium and chloride than those at the nearby surface rural sites. High organics were observed for all four seasons, and the relatively fresh organic aerosol (OA) containing high proportion of less-photo chemically OA, were found from long-range transported aerosol from northwest. Semi-volatile and low-volatile oxidized OAs together contributed approximately 49%, 55% in spring and 72% and 51% in winter of total OA, showing at least 50% of OA can be attributable to SOA. Seasonally, the chemical components at the elevated site showed a "winter high and autumn low" pattern, with organics, sulfate and ammonium peaking in summer. Though no obvious differences of MSDs were seen for various chemical components in the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and free troposphere (FT), the concentrations were a factor of 5–7 higher in PBL than in FT. The averaged MSDs of particles between 30–1000 nm for organics, sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium are approximately log-normal with similar mass median diameters (MMDs) of 539, 585, 542, and 545 nm, respectively, which were slightly larger than those in ground sites within North China Plain (NCP). Obvious differences in MMDs were found between fresh and aged aerosols for sulfate and ammonium, with smaller increased size-factors for the Mt. Tai aerosols than those in less polluted areas. All these exhibit the relative aged and well-mixed aerosol observed.

In this study, the daily PM 2.5 atmospheric aerosols were collected on quartz and PTFE filters simultaneously from -displayed the highest in December and the lowest in July, which is related to the coal-combustion emission from heating. Three groups with high, medium and low PM 2.5 concentrations were categorized. SO 4 2-, NO 3 -, OC and NH 4 + accounted for 24%, 20%, 21% and 11% of sum of defined components in the high concentration days. In the medium and low concentrations, OC occupied large fractions of defined components. Mass closure was obtained for PTFE, but not for quartz. The PM 2.5 mass concentrations on quartz filters were about 50 µg m -3 higher than that on PTFE. The concentrations of water soluble ions on quartz filters were about 60-70% of that on PTFE filters. About 15-30% of PM 2.5 was considered as the contribution of water vapor, the artifact of water vapor on quartz filter should be noted in later research works. PM 2.5 displayed neutral during the year of 2008 and appeared acidic at the next year according to the calculation of cations/anion, concentration of hydrogen and acidic purity. Carbonaceous aerosols occupied same fractions in neutral and acidic aerosols. While sulfate and nitrate contributed 32% and 21% to PM 2.5 for acidic aerosols, and 22%, 17% of PM 2.5 from sulfate and nitrate for neutral aerosols.

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