PIXE Analysis of the Composition of Atmospheric Aerosols

Proton induced x-ray emission (PIXE) has been used for elemental analysis of 250 aerosol loaded filter samples collected daily over a period of up to three months at different sites: 1. inner city, 2. residential area, 3. recreation area near city and 4. remote alpine resort area. The time dependence of different elemental concentrations show high correlation with meteorological parameters. Average concentration ratios between site 1, site 3 and site 4 amount to 100 to 10 to 1.