Particulate matter (PM 10 and PM 2.5 ) concentrations during a Saharan dust episode in Istanbul
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Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) concentrations during a Saharan dust episode in Istanbul Özkan Çapraz 1
&
Ali Deniz 1
Received: 7 June 2020 / Accepted: 18 August 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Istanbul, the biggest city of Turkey, is in a common route for air parcels. Air pollutants are carried over the city from Asian, African, and European continents. Sahara Desert, the largest dust source on earth, affects Turkey’s air qualities substantially due to millions of tons of mineral dust being transported from the African continent towards Turkey every year. Although the effect of Saharan dust transportation on PM10 concentrations in Turkey was examined many times, its effect on PM2.5 concentrations has not been studied yet sufficiently. In February 2015, Istanbul experienced a Saharan dust episode and during this event the concentrations of particulate matter rose to very high levels. This study focuses on particulate matter concentrations (PM10 and PM2.5) during this Saharan dust episode to better understand the effect of dust transportation on Istanbul’s air quality. HYSPLIT trajectory model, satellite products, and air quality monitoring data from ground observations were utilized. We show that the PM10 concentrations increased significantly during the dust episode while PM2.5 concentrations didn’t increase considerably. There was only a slight rise in the values of PM2.5. The significant increase for the PM10 values can be explained by the higher gravitational settling velocities of coarse particles in the atmosphere. Keywords Air quality . Turkey . Saharan dust episode . Remote sensing . Particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5)
Introduction The air pollution and its health impacts have attracted worldwide attention during the last decades. Various studies showed that all types of air pollution, at high concentrations, can affect the airways. On the other hand, low-level air pollution is as dangerous as high-level ones once the long-term exposure is in account. Even within the limits of the current air quality standards, the negative health effect of air pollutants can still be observed and measured (Vedal et al. 2003). Particulate matter is a complex mixture of particles of various sizes and chemical composition originating from various sources. Sahara desert, which produces about half of the annual mineral dust in the world, is the largest dust source of atmospheric mineral dust (Karanasiou et al. 2012). The impact of dust storms can be observed many hundreds of kilometers downwind from the emission source. Large amounts of dust * Özkan Çapraz [email protected] 1
Faculty of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Department of Meteorology, İstanbul Technical University, Maslak, Istanbul, Turkey
from Sahara desert substantially affect particulate matter concentrations around the world (Carlson and Prospero 1972; Griffin et al. 2001; Cadelis et al. 2014; Stafoggia et al. 2016). Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, is in a common route for air parcels. Air pollutants are carried over European continent cros
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