Abstract
Successful mitigation of air pollution in large cities requires information about the structure of emission sources and their contribution to total atmospheric load. The presented research demonstrates a possibility of application of isotope tracers for the estimation of contribution of different sources to the carbonaceous fraction of PM2.5 (Particulate Matter containing fraction below 2.5 μm) collected in the urban atmosphere of Krakow, Poland during the summer and winter seasons. Isotope mass balance approach was used to perform source apportionment analysis for those two seasons. The analysis showed that the dominant source of the carbonaceous fraction of PM2.5 in Krakow is coal burning during the winter season and biogenic emissions during the summer season. Sensitivity analysis revealed that the uncertainty of the percentage contribution of different sources to the overall carbon load of the analyzed PM2.5 fraction is in order of a few percent.
Highlights
An increased interest in issues related to air pollution has been observed
We present here an example of the application of natural carbon isotopes to identify and determine the share of different emission sources of carbonaceous particulate matter to the observed air pollution load in Krakow atmosphere
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Summary
An increased interest in issues related to air pollution has been observed. This is due to growing public awareness of the impact of air quality on human health. There are a number of studies presenting the negative impact of air pollution on human health [1,2,3]. Despite the radical decisions made recently by the City Council, such as the introduction of a total ban on combustion of solid fuels in the city [4], and replacement of most public transport fleet with electric, hybrid, or Euro-6 compliant vehicles, periods of increased concentrations of particulate matter (PM) pollutants in the city atmosphere exceeding daily limit value for the PM10 fraction of 50 μg/m3 [5] are still observed. One of the key questions having no unequivocal answer to date is related to the role of various emission sources in the observed PM load of the urban atmosphere in Krakow and its temporal variability
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