Long range particulate matter transport to atmosphere of Zonguldak

Pollutants that are suspended in the atmosphere for several minutes to several weeks, which contain many organic and inorganic components, either natural or anthropogenic in origin, present as solid or liquid in the atmosphere, are called particulate matter (PM). Particles with an aerodynamic radius of 10 micrometers or less are called as PM10. PM10, which effects human health and ecosystem and causes economic damages, is one of the harmful fractions in the atmosphere. PM10 is the main air pollutant in terms of using coal as a fuel for heating activities in Zonguldak and coal use in thermal power plants and industrial activities. Although there are some studies on PM10 in the study area, these studies do not investigate the effect of long range transport on the increase of PM10concentrations.In this study, it is aimed to show that PM10increases as a result of long range transport. PM10 measurements, were obtained from Zonguldak Air Quality Monitoring Station between 2014 and 2017, were analyzed. As a result of this analysis, it has been shown that the change in air quality is improved due to compliance with air quality standards and natural gas use as fuel. As a result of statistical analysis of PM10 measurements, important days were found for pollution. MODIS satellite images of these days were examined by using Giovanni web tool and the days when PM10 increase was found with long range transport. In this study, the HYSPLIT model was run for each day in the study period by combining back trajectories, global meteorological data and PM10measurements using TrajStat software. The main clusters were created to express the back trajectories for each year. As a result of the study, it has been observed that there exist a particulate transport to Zonguldak province by long range transport in every year. As a result, this study demonstrates the importance of long range transport on ambient air quality of Zonguldak city.