[WT5HZ]Abstract:[WT5BZ] The observation and source apportionment of carbonaceous aerosols is one of the focus of studies in the current scientific community. Radioactive (¹⁴C) and stable (¹³C) carbon isotopes have become useful tools in the source apportionment studies for carbonaceous aerosols. In this paper, we review the recent development of carbon isotope techniques, and explore its potential to be used for source apportionment for carbonaceous aerosols. It was pointed out that ¹⁴C has unique advantages in the quantitative distinguishment between fossil fuel and contemporary biomass combustion sources of atmospheric Organic Carbon (OC) and Black Carbon (BC), and that the combined ¹⁴C-¹³C analysis can better constrain the sources of carbonaceous aerosols. Recent progress towards isolating OC and BC from other components of the particles has made it appicable to perform ¹⁴C measurements for OC and BC seperately. As for ¹³C, it was proposed that while it is very important to investigate the isotopic fractionation mechanism of δ¹³C values of the carbonaceous aerosols, a regional δ¹³C signature map for the carbonacoues aerosols should be biult up aiming to facilitate explaining the δ¹³C variations and hence constraining the emisson sources. Future research that uses these carbon isotope techniques, in conjunction with other means such as Chemical Mass Balance (CMB) receptor models, statistical methods, air trajectory analysis and remote sensing, can provide unprecedented new insights into the sources and chemical characteristics of carbonaceous aerosols.