[1] We carried out a detailed size-resolved chemical characterization of particle emissions from the combustion of European conifer species, savanna grass, African hardwood, and German and Indonesian peat. Combustion particles were sampled using two sets of five-stage Berner-type cascade impactors after a buffer volume and a dilution tunnel. We determined the emission factors of water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC, 46-6700 mg kg À1 , sum of five stages), water-insoluble organic carbon (WISOC, 1300-6100 mg kg À1 ), (apparent) elemental carbon (ECa, 490-1800 mg kg À1 ), inorganic ions (68-400 mg kg À1 ), n-alkanes (0.38-910 mg kg À1 ), n-alkenes (0.45-180 mg kg À1 ), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (1.4-28 mg kg À1 ), oxy-PAHs (0.08-1.0 mg kg À1 ), lignin decomposition products (59-620 mg kg À1 ), nitrophenols (1.4-31 mg kg À1 ), resin acids (0-110 mg kg À1 ), and cellulose and hemicellulose decomposition products (540-5900 mg kg À1 ). The combustion and particle emission characteristics of both of peat were significantly different from those of the other biofuels. Peat burning yielded significantly higher emission factors of total fine particles in comparison to the other biofuels. Very high emission factors of n-alkanes and n-alkenes were observed from peat combustion, which may be connected to the concurrently observed ''missing'' CCN in peat smoke. A highlevel ofmonosaccharide anhydrides, especiallylevoglucosan, wasdetectedfromall types of biofuel combustion. The fractions of monosaccharide anhydrides in the emitted total carbon were higher in smaller particles (aerodynamic diameter, D pa < 0.42 mm).

Abstract. On 24 March 2007, an extraordinary dust plume was observed in the Central European troposphere. Satellite observations revealed its origins in a dust storm in Southern Ukraine, where large amounts of soil were resuspended from dried-out farmlands at wind gusts up to 30 m s−1. Along the pathway of the plume, maximum particulate matter (PM10) mass concentrations between 200 and 1400 μg m−3 occurred in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany. Over Germany, the dust plume was characterised by a volume extinction coefficient up to 400 Mm−1 and a particle optical depth of 0.71 at wavelength 0.532 μm. In-situ size distribution measurements as well as the wavelength dependence of light extinction from lidar and Sun photometer measurements confirmed the presence of a coarse particle mode with diameters around 2–3 μm. Chemical particle analyses suggested a fraction of 75% crustal material in daily average PM10 and up to 85% in the coarser fraction PM10–2.5. Based on the particle characteristics as well as a lack of increased CO and CO2 levels, a significant impact of biomass burning was ruled out. The reasons for the high particle concentrations in the dust plume were twofold: First, dust was transported very rapidly into Central Europe in a boundary layer jet under dry conditions. Second, the dust plume was confined to a relatively stable boundary layer of 1.4–1.8 km height, and could therefore neither expand nor dilute efficiently. Our findings illustrate the capacity of combined in situ and remote sensing measurements to characterise large-scale dust plumes with a variety of aerosol parameters. Although such plumes from Southern Eurasia seem to occur rather infrequently in Central Europe, its unexpected features highlights the need to improve the description of dust emission, transport and transformation processes needs, particularly when facing the possible effects of further anthropogenic desertification and climate change.

Size-segregated particle samples were collected using a Berner 5-stage impactor (stages 1-5: 0.05-0.14-0.42-1.2-3.5-10 μm aerodynamic diameter). The means for all 169 days and for different categories of days were used for a characterization. The sorting criteria were (a) the distinction between winter (Wi, November to April) and summer (Su, May to October), (b) the distinction between air mass inflow from a sector West (W, 210°-320°) and from a sector East (E, 35°-140°). For the assignment of the air mass origin 96-h backward trajectories were used and four categories (WiW, WiE, SuW and SuE) with 48, 18, 42 and 29 days were established. The lowest mean particle mass concentrations were found for SuW and the highest for WiE with relative mass concentration distributions of 5.9, 28.2, 36.5, 18.0, and 11.4 % and 3.5, 22.7, 52.6, 16.7, and 4.5 % for stages 1-5, respectively. The mass closure for water soluble ions, water, organic material (OM) and elemental carbon (EC) accounts for 81-99 % of the gravimetric mass in Wi and for 60-81 % for Su, depending on the stage. The fractions of nitrate were relatively high for WiW while sulphate fractions are high for WiE. The estimated concentrations of secondary organic carbon (SOA) on stage 3 for WiW, WiE, SuW and SuE were 0.32, 1.25, 0.27 and 0.58 μgm − ³, respectively. The highest amount of SOA is found for WiE, representing 59 % of organic carbon (OC). The highest difference in the percentages of SOA in OC was found between winter (WiW 55 %, WiE 59 %) and summer (SuW and SuE 74 %) indicating photochemical processes during long-range transport. The mean Carbon Preference Indices (CPI) are highest for SuE (stage 4: 7.57 and stage 5: 9.82) resulting mainly from plant wax abrasion in the surrounding forests. For WiE the mean PAH concentration on stage 3 (9.7 ngm −3 ) is about five times higher than for WiW, indicating long range transport following domestic heating and other combustion processes.

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