Abstract
Abstract. A total of 10 years of hourly aerosol and gas data at four rural German stations have been combined with hourly back trajectories to the stations and inventories of the European Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), yielding pollution maps over Germany of PM10, particle number concentrations, and equivalent black carbon (eBC). The maps reflect aerosol emissions modified with atmospheric processes during transport between sources and receptor sites. Compared to emission maps, strong western European emission centers do not dominate the downwind concentrations because their emissions are reduced by atmospheric processes on the way to the receptor area. PM10, eBC, and to some extent also particle number concentrations are rather controlled by emissions from southeastern Europe from which pollution transport often occurs under drier conditions. Newly formed particles are found in air masses from a broad sector reaching from southern Germany to western Europe, which we explain with gaseous particle precursors coming with little wet scavenging from this region. Annual emissions for 2009 of PM10, BC, SO2, and NOx were accumulated along each trajectory and compared with the corresponding measured time series. The agreement of each pair of time series was optimized by varying monthly factors and annual factors on the 2009 emissions. This approach yielded broader summer emission minima than published values that were partly displaced from the midsummer positions. The validity of connecting the ambient concentration and emission of particulate pollution was tested by calculating temporal changes in eBC for subsets of back trajectories passing over two separate prominent emission regions, region A to the northwest and B to the southeast of the measuring stations. Consistent with reported emission data the calculated emission decreases over region A are significantly stronger than over region B.
Highlights
Atmospheric aerosol is known to influence the Earth’s radiation budget because it directly scatters and absorbs solar radiation (Schwartz, 1996; Bond et al, 2013) and acts as cloud condensation nuclei, modulating the optical properties and lifetimes of clouds (Twomey, 1974; Penner et al, 2004)
A total of 10 years of hourly aerosol and gas data at three stations of the German Ultrafine Aerosol Network (GUAN) and one station of the Saxonian Environment Agency have been combined with hourly back trajectories to the stations and emission inventories
Measured particle mass concentrations below 10 μm (PM10), particle number concentrations between 10 and 800 nm, and equivalent black carbon were extrapolated along the trajectories
Summary
Atmospheric aerosol is known to influence the Earth’s radiation budget because it directly scatters and absorbs solar radiation (Schwartz, 1996; Bond et al, 2013) and acts as cloud condensation nuclei, modulating the optical properties and lifetimes of clouds (Twomey, 1974; Penner et al, 2004). In many regions of the globe that underwent industrialization early on, anthropogenic aerosol concentrations are currently in decline (Leibensperger et al, 2012; Zanatta et al, 2016). Atmospheric aerosol has been acknowledged to influence human health through respiratory and cardiovascular health end points (Anderson et al, 2012). Lelieveld et al (2015) quantified the worldwide burden of disease (premature mortality) due to outdoor pollution, a large part of which was attributed to airborne particulate matter. It is apparent that the distribution of adverse health effects is very uneven among the worldwide population, depending on the local level of outdoor pollution
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
