Water-soluble inorganic ions in urban aerosols of the continental part of Balkans (Belgrade) during the summer – autumn (2008)

Abstract

Size-segregated aerosol samples were collected using six stages High Volume Cascade Impactor. Aerosol mass and water soluble ions concentrations were determined. The Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model was used to study the origin of air masses arriving to Belgrade in the investigated period. The obtained results of aerosol mass and water-soluble ion concentrations have been divided into six sub-data sets based on air mass categories. The highest average mass concentration of the fine mode (D p ≤ 0.49 μm) was found for air masses coming to Belgrade from the southeast and northwest directions, and of the coarse mode (3.0 < Dp ≤7.2 μm) for air masses arriving from the northwest direction. The highest concentrations of SO 4 2-were found in the fine particles transported to the investigated area by air masses from southeast direction. The analysis of contribution of marine aerosol components (Na + and Cl -), the Correlation and Cluster Analysis indicated the influence of marine aerosol on urban aerosol of the central Balkans coming from the Western Mediterranean and northern direction. NH 4 + and SO 4 2-and K+ dominated in the fine mode for all air mass categories. PCA demonstrated the dominant impact of secondary aerosol formation processes on urban aerosols.

Mass distributions and morphological and chemical characterization of urban aerosols in the continental Balkan area (Belgrade)

“…NW and SW air masses are arriving from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, respectively, and this form of bimodal mass distribution can be linked to the marine aerosol combined with the continental aerosol. In our previous studies using the components of marine aerosols (Na + , Cl − , Mg 2+ ) and prevailing air masses, we could detect significant influence of marine aerosols in the urban area of the central Balkans (Đorđević et al 2012Mihajlidi-Zelić et al 2015).…”

“…In our previous work, dominant air masses for each sample are identified (Mihajlidi-Zelić et al 2015). Three characteristic types of mass distributions are observed: (1) with distinctly dominant coarse mode (Fig.…”

“…In our previous work, it was shown that the dominant air masses were from the west segment-SW (34.4 %) and NW (28.1 %), whereas the presence of air masses from the southeastern segment (SE) was less than 10 % (Mihajlidi-Zelić et al 2015).…”

“…The first type of mass distribution (Fig. 1a) presents the samples collected during air masses mainly arriving from continental northern, northeastern, and southeastern segments (N, NE, SE), respectively, (Mihajlidi-Zelić et al 2015) with the exception of the samples collected on 9-11 July 2008 and 26-28 August 2008 (northwestern (NW) air masses) and on 12-14 November 2008 (southwestern (SW) air masses). Although the distributions of these samples have mild features of the bimodal distribution, the first mode is not as clearly expressed as in Fig.…”

“…1b). Figure 2b 1 presents an image of aerosols collected in the period 13-15 October 2008, when NW air masses were prevailing (Mihajlidi-Zelić et al 2015). The sample is porous with an abundance of small particles adsorbed on large ones.…”