Increases in PM_2.5 levels in Houston are associated with a highly recirculating sea breeze

Local land-sea breezes play an important role in coastal air quality because they circulate air between coastal/urban and marine areas, potentially causing the accumulation of pollutants. This has been observed for the secondary photochemical pollutant ozone. However, particulate matter (PM) also warrants investigation. To understand the complicated interactions between coastal urban air quality and a local land-sea breeze, we analyzed historical monitoring data from Houston, Texas, which is the fourth most populous city in the United States. Using k-means clustering algorithms to analyze wind data from Houston, we successfully identified a sea breeze recirculation cluster. Additionally, we performed positive matrix factorization on PM_2.5 (2.5 μm in diameter or smaller) composition data for 2010-2018 from Houston Deer Park #2 monitoring site, 5 km south of the industrialized Houston Ship Channel. The resulting eight factors indicated a variety of anthropogenic, natural, primary and secondary sources. Emphasizing the PM_2.5 sources in each of the wind clusters for June, July, and August, we discovered that on southernly wind and sea breeze recirculation days, the PM_2.5 concentrations are ∼30% higher than those under other wind patterns. Under southerly wind, 53% of PM_2.5 was attributed to long-range transport of soil and 15% to aged and fresh sea salt. In contrast, on days identified as being impacted by a sea breeze, 60% of PM_2.5 was attributed to anthropogenic emissions and only 15% to soil sources. Secondary organic aerosol from multiple sources also appeared to be important on sea breeze days.