Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to identify the drivers responsible for the high particulate matter concentrations observed in recent years in several urban areas in Poland. The problem was investigated using air quality and meteorological data from routine monitoring network, air mass back trajectories and multivariate statistical modelling. Air pollution in central and southern part of the country was analysed and compared with this in northern-eastern “The Green Lungs of Poland” region. The analysis showed that in all investigated locations, there is a clear annual cycle of observed concentrations, closely following temperature-heating cycles, with the highest concentrations noted in January. However, the main drivers differ along the country, being either connected with regional background pollution (in the central part of the country) or with local emission sources (in the southern part). The occurrence of high PM10 concentrations is most commonly associated with the influence of high-pressure systems that brought extremely cold and stable air masses form East or South of Europe. During analysed episodes, industrial point sources had the biggest (up to 70–80 %) share in PM10 levels on the days with maximum PM pollution, while remote and residential/traffic sources determined the air quality in the early stages of the episodes. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows that secondary inorganic aerosols account for long-range transported pollution, As, Cd, Pb and Zn for industrial point sources, while Cr and Cu for residential and traffic sources of PM10, respectively.
Highlights
Particulate matter (PM) is a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles with varying physical, mineralogical and chemical characteristics dependent on categories identified according to their aerodynamic diameter, as either ultrafine PM0.1, fine PM2.5, coarse PM10–2.5 or PM10
The combination of two source apportionment techniques: principal component analysis with multivariate linear regression analysis (PCA-MLRA) and the so-called Lenschow approach, complemented by the analysis of the synoptic situation and variability of the local meteorological parameters as well as of the air mass back trajectories was applied for identification of emission sources determining high PM10 concentrations during two episodes of Januaries 2009 and 2010 in Polish urban areas
The results demonstrate that a number of anthropogenic emission processes and unfavourable synoptic- and local-scale meteorological conditions play an important role in the determination of severe wintertime episodes
Summary
Particulate matter (PM) is a complex mixture of solid and liquid particles with varying physical, mineralogical and chemical characteristics dependent on categories identified according to their aerodynamic diameter, as either ultrafine PM0.1 (particles with an aerodynamic diameter, da
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