Assessment of ankara urban air quality by concurrent measurements at two different stations

This study was conducted at the two air quality monitoring stations operated by the Turkish Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change in Ankara, Türkiye. The real time data for gaseous pollutants at these stations in 2021 was evaluated. In addition, Thermo Dichotomous sampler was used to collect daily fine (PM2.5) and coarse (PM10-2.5) PM at these stations during winter and summer of 2021. Average levels of both NO2 and NOx at both stations exceeded the limit values in the regulation. Once Siteler and Sıhhiye stations were compared in terms of gaseous parameters, it has been found that NOx levels at Sıhhiye station is higher than one measured for Siteler station. In contrast to this, SO2 and CO levels measured at Siteler station exceeded the levels reported for Sıhhiye station. The PM2.5 data for Siteler station revealed that OC, EC, TC, NH4+, K+, Ca2+ and Cl- levels were significantly higher than ones found for the Sıhhiye station. The soil enrichment factor was estimated using PM element data for Siteler station. The calculated enrichment factor values were >10 for Cu, Ni, As, Hg, Cr, Pb, Mo, Se, Cd, Sb and Ag, implying that these elements have sources other than soil. Factor analyses was applied to PM chemical composition data at both stations. While eight factors (industry, coal combustion, secondary inorganic aerosol, road dust, metal processing, biomass combustion, another metal industry, and another combustion source) were resolved for Siteler station, four factors including road dust, regional pollution, traffic and biomass combustions were identified for the Sıhhiye station.