Mineral dust represents one of the main components of particulate matter (PM) in the Mediterranean area. The rapid identification of Saharan dust events in PM samples is desirable and required for several reasons, including their role in direct effect on climate by radiative forcing as well as their adverse effects on human health. For this purpose, the feasibility of UV–Vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (UV–Vis DRS) is described as a rapid, inexpensive and non-destructive method of analysis of PM filters. The method developed allows to parameterize the PM filter colors and to obtain semiquantitative data related to iron oxide minerals, mainly hematite and goethite, two of the most representative minerals of Saharan dust in the Mediterranean area. The obtained results were validated based on the correlation between the spectrophotometric data of iron oxides from the membranes with the quantitative assessment of the concentration of iron by Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE). Moreover, colorimetric parameterization allows setting up a classification approach for filters with potential for a posteriori use of this data in the study of the optical behavior of aerosol particles in the air. In this work, it is demonstrated how, as the concentration of iron mineral oxides and especially of hematite increases, the extent of redness color in PM filters grows up. Therefore, this technique can be extremely useful for a rapid, cheap and unambiguous identification of Saharan dust events in PM filters. The diagnosis of Saharan dust events was performed on PM₁₀ filters with a strong mineral dust component and demonstrated with the residence time analysis of back-trajectory ensembles, proving the reliability of this non-destructive methodology. This method has the potential to be adopted by the Environmental Protection Agencies, although further evaluations are necessary and currently underway to assess their applicability not only for PM filters sampled in remote stations but also in urban stations affected by both anthropogenic pollution and Saharan dust events.

矿物粉尘是地中海地区颗粒物（PM）的主要成分之一。出于以下几个原因，需要快速识别PM样品中的撒哈拉尘埃事件，这是需要和要求的，包括其在辐射强迫对气候的直接影响中的作用以及对人体健康的不利影响。为此，紫外-可见漫反射光谱法（UV-Vis DRS）的可行性被描述为一种快速，廉价且无损的PM滤光片分析方法。所开发的方法可以参数化PM滤光片的颜色，并获得与氧化铁矿物有关的半定量数据，主要是赤铁矿和针铁矿，这是地中海地区撒哈拉粉尘中最具代表性的两种矿物。基于来自膜的氧化铁的分光光度数据与通过粒子诱导X射线发射（PIXE）对铁浓度的定量评估之间的相关性，验证了所获得的结果。而且，比色参数化允许为过滤器建立分类方法，该过滤器可能在研究空气中的气溶胶颗粒的光学行为方面具有后验利用该数据的潜力。在这项工作中，证明了随着铁矿物质氧化物（尤其是赤铁矿）浓度的增加，PM过滤器中的红色程度会增加。因此，该技术对于快速，廉价和明确地识别PM过滤器中的撒哈拉尘埃事件非常有用。撒哈拉尘埃事件的诊断是在下午进行的 比色参数化允许为过滤器建立分类方法，该方法有可能在研究空气中气溶胶颗粒的光学行为时使用该数据。在这项工作中，证明了随着铁矿物质氧化物（尤其是赤铁矿）浓度的增加，PM过滤器中的红色程度会增加。因此，该技术对于快速，廉价和明确地识别PM过滤器中的撒哈拉尘埃事件非常有用。撒哈拉尘埃事件的诊断是在下午进行的 比色参数化允许为过滤器建立分类方法，该方法有可能在研究空气中气溶胶颗粒的光学行为时使用该数据。在这项工作中，证明了随着铁矿物质氧化物（尤其是赤铁矿）浓度的增加，PM过滤器中的红色程度会增加。因此，该技术对于快速，廉价和明确地识别PM过滤器中的撒哈拉尘埃事件非常有用。撒哈拉尘埃事件的诊断是在下午进行的 这项技术对于快速，廉价和明确地识别PM过滤器中的撒哈拉尘埃事件非常有用。撒哈拉尘埃事件的诊断是在下午进行的 这项技术对于快速，廉价和明确地识别PM过滤器中的撒哈拉尘埃事件非常有用。撒哈拉尘埃事件的诊断是在下午进行的_10个具有强矿物粉尘成分的过滤器，并通过反向轨迹集合体的停留时间分析进行了演示，证明了这种无损检测方法的可靠性。这种方法有可能被环境保护机构采用，尽管有必要进行进一步评估，并且目前正在进行评估，以评估其方法不仅适用于偏远站点采样的PM过滤器，而且还适用于受人为污染和撒哈拉尘埃事件影响的城市站点。