Natural sources of atmospheric aerosols influencing air quality across Europe

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 472; pp. 825 - 833
• Main Authors: Viana, M., Pey, J., Querol, X., Alastuey, A., de Leeuw, F., Lükewille, Anke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 15.02.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aerosols - analysis; African dust; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollution - statistics & numerical data; Air quality questionnaire; Applied sciences; Atmosphere - chemistry; Atmospheric pollution; Dispersed sources and other; Environmental Monitoring; EU Directive 50/2008/EC; Europe; Exact sciences and technology; Particulate Matter - analysis; Pollution; Pollution sources. Measurement results; Sea-salt; Subtraction of exceedances; Wildfires; Europe; Africa; ANE, Portugal; ANE, France; MED, Italy; Austria; MED, Malta; MED, Greece; MED, Cyprus; ANE, Latvia; ASE, Atlantic, Canary Is; ANE, Germany; Spain; Sea-salt; Wildfires; Air quality questionnaire; African dust; Subtraction of exceedances; EU Directive 50/2008/EC; Natural origin pollution; Questionnaire; Air quality; Combustion; Biomass; Spatial variation; Time variation; Coarse particle; Dust; Sea salt; European Union; European directive; Long range pollutant transport; Aerosols; Air pollution; Vegetation fire; Regulation
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.11.140

Atmospheric aerosols are emitted by natural and anthropogenic sources. Contributions from natural sources to ambient aerosols vary widely with time (inter-annual and seasonal variability) and as a function of the distance to source regions. This work aims to identify the main natural sources of atmospheric aerosols affecting air quality across Europe. The origin, frequency, magnitude, and spatial and temporal variability of natural events were assessed for the years 2008 and 2009. The main natural sources of atmospheric aerosols identified were African dust, sea spray and wildfires. Primary biological particles were not included in the present work. Volcanic eruptions did not affect air quality significantly in Europe during the study period. The impact of natural episodes on air quality was significant in Southern and Western Europe (Cyprus, Spain, France, UK, Greece, Malta, Italy and Portugal), where they contributed to surpass the PM10 daily and annual limit values. In Central and Northern Europe (Germany, Austria and Latvia) the impact of these events was lower, as it resulted in the exceedance of PM daily but not annual limit values. Contributions from natural sources to mean annual PM10 levels in 2008 and 2009 ranged between 1 and 2μg/m3 in Italy, France and Portugal, between 1 and 4μg/m3 in Spain (10μg/m3 when including the Canary Islands), 5μg/m3 in UK, between 3 and 8μg/m3 in Greece, and reached up to 13μg/m3 in Cyprus. The evaluation of the number of monitoring stations per country reporting natural exceedances of the daily limit value (DLV) is suggested as a potential tool for air quality monitoring networks to detect outliers in the assessment of natural contributions. It is strongly suggested that a reference methodology for the identification and quantification of African dust contributions should be adopted across Europe. •Natural sources of atmospheric aerosols across Europe were identified.•Origin, frequency, magnitude, and spatio-temporal variability were assessed.•The impact of natural episodes on air quality was significant in S and W Europe.•Contributions from natural sources to annual PM10 means range between 1 and 8μg/m3.