PM10 levels at urban, suburban, and background locations in the eastern Mediterranean: local versus regional sources with emphasis on African dust

• Published in: Air quality, atmosphere and health atmosphere and health, 2019-11, Vol.12 (11), p.1359-1371
• Main Authors: Chatoutsidou, Sofia Eirini, Kopanakis, Ilias, Lagouvardos, Konstantinos, Mihalopoulos, Nikolaos, Tørseth, Kjetil, Lazaridis, Mihalis
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Airborne particulates; Anthropogenic factors; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Dust; Dust storms; Dust transport; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Health; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Heating; Human influences; Particulate matter; Particulate matter emissions; Particulate matter monitoring; Particulate matter sources; Storms; Urban areas; Vehicle emissions
• ISSN: 1873-9318; 1873-9326
• DOI: 10.1007/s11869-019-00750-4

PM 10 levels were determined at different locations in a coastal site in the eastern Mediterranean to assess the relative contribution of local versus regional sources. Two campaigns were conducted: during the first, PM 10 was monitored at three urban locations (kerbside/traffic/background) at different sampling periods, whereas during the second one, PM 10 was simultaneously measured at two locations (urban/suburban). Both campaigns have shown that African dust transport was a major carrier of coarse particles. Daily PM 10 concentrations of 547 μg m −3 and 234 μg m −3 were measured during the first and the second campaigns, respectively, both of them associated with severe dust storms. However, some dust episodes influenced lesser PM 10 levels. The contribution from dust episodes to the measured concentration was estimated at 2–527 μg m −3 during the first campaign and 4–218 μg m −3 during the second campaign. Classification into dusty and non-dusty days has shown that local anthropogenic sources also influence ambient PM 10 concentrations; however, few exceedances of the daily limit of 50 μg m −3 occurred during both campaigns. Particularly, it was found that domestic heating during cold months was a major contributor to PM 10 levels followed by emissions from traffic with higher contribution of the latter during summer months (high touristic season) as well as non-traffic emissions (road dust resuspension). Hourly average PM 10 concentration during the second campaign has shown that traffic-related emissions and/or road dust resuspension were associated with up to 40 μg m −3 whereas during wintertime late evening hours, PM 10 concentration from heating reached up to 60 μg m −3 at the central urban location.