Variations of PM10 mass concentrations and correlations with other pollutants in Belgrade urban area

Abstract

In this paper, we present the PM10 levels measured at an urban residential background site in New Belgrade, in Omladinskih Brigada Street, at 15 m height (roof). The aerosol samples were collected using European standard sampler, in four seasonal campaigns conducted in autumn: Nov 13-Dec 03, 2007, winter: Feb 07-28, 2008, spring: May 06-28, 2008 and summer: July 17- August 15, 2008. The results were compared with PM10 mass concentrations measured with Horiba automatic station at street level, at the same sampling site and at three more sites within Belgrade municipal monitoring network. The results show that PM10 values in Belgrade urban area were high during autumn and winter campaigns (heating season) with a number of samples exceeding the 24-hr limit value of 50 mg m-3. On the roof station, maximum daily value was 209 mg m-3 measured in the autumn campaign, with 14 values out of 20 measurements exceeding the 24hr limit. In winter, 14 out of 19 measurements exceeded the limit, with maximum value 196 mg m-3. During the spring campaign, number of exceedances was three out of 22. All values during summer campaign were below 50 mg m-3. The roof station equipped with the European Standard instrument showed systematically higher values than the street-level automatic monitor. PM10 values at all sites followed the same trend. The highest concentrations at all monitoring sites were observed during the autumn, Nov 20-Nov 25, 2007 and winter, Feb 19-Feb 23, 2008.