A gas chromatographic method is presented for the determination of C₂ to C₁₁ hydrocarbons in ambient air. The method detected 78 indivisual peaks in chromatograms of ambient air which represented well over 200 paraffinic, olefinic, and aromatic hydrocarbons.
Factor analysis was applied to olefinic and aromatic hydrocarbons pollution. As a result, two common factors were obtained from 24 variable data. These were; photochemistry and a scale factor. Further, a statistical estimation of the photochemistry was obtained from the results of the factor analysis. Consequently, the statistical estimation was found to agree well with the reactivities of hydrocarbons in nitric oxide photooxidation as reported by William A. Glasson.