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An 11 year study of multipollutant correlations of urban aerosols in Krakow, Poland

Wlodarczyk, Anna Julia, Arteaga-Salas, J.M., Jones, Timothy Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4466-1260, Zimmermann, Ralf and Berube, Kelly Ann ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7471-7229 2015. An 11 year study of multipollutant correlations of urban aerosols in Krakow, Poland. Presented at: European Aerosol Conference 2015, Milan, Italy, 6-11 September 2015. -.

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Abstract

Krakow is the most polluted, as far as particulate matter (PM) is concerned, city in Poland. This is an important public concern as Krakow is also the second largest populated Polish city. The specific geomorphological localization of Krakow influences the atmospheric dynamics over the city, resulting in still- or weak-winds promoting air pollution accumulation, especially during the heating season. Seasonal variability in concentrations and multipollutant correlations of gaseous pollutants (i.e. NO2, NO, NOx, SO2) and PM10, 2.5 measured over a period of January 2005 to December 2013 were investigated. Data for the study were obtained from reports published by the Voivodship Inspectorate for Environmental Protection in Krakow. A strong seasonal variation in PM10 concentration revealed that during warm months the European Union annual limit value of 40 µg/m3 was not exceeded, whereas during the heating season, it was exceeded more than twice (Figure 1). Normalized monthly concentration patterns of all investigated pollutants and temperatures revealed that NO2 had the most consistent concentration pattern over the year. Conversely, SO2, PM2.5 and PM10 levels varied greatly (e.g. SO2 concentrations in January were more than 100% greater and 54% lower than the monthly average in May). Moreover SO2 had the strongest negative correlation (r = -0.64) with temperature. Seasonal correlations between pairs of pollutants were the highest between NO and NOx (0.99) and between PM10 and PM2.5 in annual and seasonal terms. The non-heating season (May-August) was characterised by lower coefficients than the heating season (September-April), when coefficients were similar to the annual values. Additionally, the ratios between average concentrations of investigated pollutants were also higher in the heating season. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images confirmed that particles were consistent with the known morphology of fly-ash (Brown et al., 2011) and other combustion-derived PM (BéruBé et al., 1999; Figure 2). For example, individual carbonaceous spheres’ forming grape-like bunches of aggregates and agglomerates which are highly-respirable. Natural factors such as geomorphology, climate and weather conditions have been determined to be the perpetrators of air pollution accumulation over the city (Wlodarczyk et al., 2015). The main source of elevated pollution levels were traffic emissions (i.e. nitrogen compounds) during warm months and residential coal-burning during the heating season. In conclusion, high annual levels, especially for PM, are greatly affected by measurements from the heating season. This ‘seasonality’ in PM2.5 concentrations should be taken into account when treating PM2.5 as a proxy in epidemiological studies for Krakow; as people in colder months spend less time outdoors. Further analysis including in vitro toxicology of PM is required to assess its direct effects on human lung biology. Brown, P., Jones, T. and BéruBé, K. (2011). Environmental Pollution 159 (12):3324-3333. BéruBé, K., Williamson, B., Winters, C., et al., (1999). Atmospheric Environment, 33(10):1599-1614.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Poster)
Date Type: Publication
Status: Unpublished
Schools: Biosciences
Earth and Environmental Sciences
Subjects: Q Science > Q Science (General)
Related URLs:
Last Modified: 17 Nov 2022 05:08
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/79028

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