Analysis of daily precipitation data by positive matrix factorization

Abstract

Abstract A new factor analysis method called positive matrix factorization (PMF) has been applied to daily precipitation data from four Finnish EMEP stations. The aim of the analysis was to investigate the structure of the data matrices in order to find the apparent source profiles from which the precipitation samples are constituted. A brief description of PMF is given. PMF utilizes the known uncertainty of data values. The standard deviations were derived from the results of double sampling at one station during one year. A goodness‐of‐fit function Q was calculated for factor solutions with 1–8 factors. The shape of the residuals was useful in deciding the number of factors. The strongest factor found was that of sea‐salt. The most dominant ions in the factor were sodium, chloride and magnesium. At the coastal stations the ratio Cl/Na of the mean concentrations in the factor was near the ratio found in sea water but at the inland stations the ratio was smaller. For most ions more than 90 per cent of the weighted variation was explained. The worst explained was potassium (at worst c. 60 per cent) which is possibly due to contamination problems in the laboratory. In most factors of different factorizations the anions and cations were fairly well balanced.