Identification of PM10 air pollution origins at a rural background site

Trajectory cluster analysis and concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) approach have been applied to investigate the origins of PM10 air pollution recorded at a rural background site in North-eastern Poland(Diabla Gora). Air mass back-trajectories used in this study have been computed with the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model for a 10-year period of 2006-2015. A cluster analysis grouped back-trajectories into 7 clusters. Most of the trajectories correspond to fast and moderately moving westerly and northerly flows (45% and 25% of the cases, respectively). However, significantly higher PM10 concentrations were observed for slow moving easterly (11%) and southerly (20%) air masses. The CWT analysis shows that highPM10 levels are observed at Diabla Gora site when air masses are originated and passed over the heavily industrialized areas in Central-Eastern Europe-located to the south and south-east of the site.