The purpose of this study is to characterize metallic elements associated with atmospheric particulate matter of total suspended particulate (TSP), fine particle (particle matter with aerodynamical diameter < 2.5 mu m, PM2.5), coarse particle (particle matter with aerodynamical diameter 2.5-10 mu m, PM2.5-10) at the Taichung Harbor (TH) and WuChi Traffic (WT) sampling site of central Taiwan during March 2004 to February 2005. The result indicated the average total suspended particulate concentration in 1 year was 157.31 and 112.58 mu g m(-3) at TH and WT sampling site, respectively. Fine particle (PM2.5) size was the dominant species at TH and WT sampling site. In TH sampling site, higher correlation coefficient was observed on total suspended particulates of metallic elements Fe and Zn. And in WT sampling site, higher correlation coefficients displayed on total suspended particulates of metallic elements Fe and Zn, Fe and Mn. Ambient airborne particle principal component analysis of metallic metals was used to identify the possible pollutant sources in this study. At the TH sampling site, 50.81% of the total variance of the data was observed in factor 1. Higher loading of Fe (0.86), Zn (0.79), Pb (0.76), and Mn (0.68) were contributed by traffic emission and the soil source. At the WT sampling site, factor 1 explained 53.74% of the total variance of the data and had high loading for Zn (0.86) and Cu (0.85), which were identified as industrial/traffic emission sources. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.