Living in healthy environment should be regarded as a primary human right and not a privilege rendered to chosen ones. For that reason, a national air monitoring grid should be as extensive as possible. Unfortunately, small towns and villages, which are also exposed to air pollution episodes are not commonly covered by monitoring grid. Fixed air monitoring systems have their limitations, which can be overcome by e.g., properly validated, reliable but cheaper mobile monitoring systems. The aim of this study was to assess the use of a car mobile PM10 monitoring system to study ambient air quality in rural communities surrounding Kraków, not covered by fixed monitoring grid. A monitoring dataset was collected during 6 winter car campaigns conducted between December 2021 and March 2022. Except for providing multiple monitoring data, the main goal pertain to methodological aspect of the mobile system, including its validation, indicating its advantages, limitations as well as providing recommendations for the future mobile studies. Our car mobile monitoring system was useful in identifying a local hot-spots with good spatial and temporal resolution, thus giving the local government decision-making tool for taking appropriate action in places not included in national monitoring grid.
<p>Regular, monthly based, diurnal measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and its carbon isotope composition (<sup>13</sup>C/<sup>12</sup>C and <sup>14</sup>C/<sup>12</sup>C ratios) were performed between 9 February 2021 and 1<sup>st </sup>February 2022 in Krakow, the second biggest city of Poland, populated by around 780,000 inhabitants. Spot air samples were collected in 3 l glass flasks every 4 hours from the roof of the building (50&#176;04&#8217; N 19&#176;55&#8217; E 220 AMSL, &#8764; 20 m above the surface) during each measurement campaign. A total of 72 air samples were collected during 12 measurement campaigns. The samples were analyzed with Picarro G2101i (Picarro Inc., Santa Clara, California, USA) to determine the carbon dioxide. After that, the samples were analyzed with Isotope-Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) and Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) in order to determine &#948;<sup>13</sup>C and &#916;<sup>14</sup>C composition. The carbon dioxide concentration during the campaign ranged from 404 ppm (7 September 2021) to 617 ppm (1 February 2022) with the one-year average of 463 ppm. &#948;<sup>13</sup>C ranged from -14.79 &#8240; (1<sup>st</sup> February 2022) to -8.5 &#8240; (7<sup>th</sup> September 2021). The one-year average results of &#916;<sup>14</sup>C were -35 &#8240;.</p> <p>Furthermore, measurement of gas concentration and its isotopic composition, along with the use of the isotope-mass balance, allowed determination of fossil fuel-related and biogenic contributions to the total measured CO<sub>2</sub> load during campaign days, allowing to characterise the diurnal and seasonal variability of those components in the urban environment. Based on the obtained results, a dataset dedicated for the validation of WRF-CHEM high-resolution simulations of the city atmosphere has been prepared.</p> <p>&#160;</p> <p>ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS</p> <p>The presented work was funded by the CoC02 project, which has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No. 958927 and the "Excellence Initiative - Research University" program at AGH University of Science and Technology.</p>
<p>Urban areas, which constitute 2% of the land surface, are responsible for around. 70% of anthropogenic CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Estimation of the anthropogenic contribution in total atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> load observed in cities is crucial for better understanding of the human influence on the carbon cycle and can help improve and validate atmospheric models dedicated for such regions.</p><p>In 2021, diurnal measurement campaigns were performed with approximately monthly resolution aimed at characterization of vertical profiles of CO<sub>2</sub> over the urban area of Krakow, Southern Poland, using a tethered touristic balloon located in the city center. The measurements were conducted up to the altitude of 280 m a.g.l. Simultaneously, &#160;spot air samples were collected in order to determine the contribution of anthropogenic component based on radiocarbon analysis. Based on preliminary results presented in this work, the temporal evolution of the nocturnal (NBL) and convective (CBL) boundary layer over the city can be observed. Part of the profiles also shows CO<sub>2</sub> plums detected at the elevation of ca. 200 m a.g.l. originating potentially from nearby industrial emission sources. The model analysis performed using the HySplit model enabled to identify a potential emission source.</p><p>This project has been partially supported by the European Union&#8217;s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 958927, and the subsidy of the Ministry of Education and Science.</p>
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