The impact of transboundary transport of air pollutants on air quality in the United Kingdom and Poland

Abstract

Precursors of particulate matter, as well as particulate matter (PM) itself can be transported in the atmosphere over long distances, thus the problem of air pollution should be considered in the cross-border context. We used the Fine Resolution Atmospheric Multi-pollutant Exchange model to calculate the import and export of sulphur and nitrogen compounds and primary particulate matter (PPM2.5 and PPM10) for the year 2007, separately for a central European country (Poland) and an island nation (the UK). For PPM the analysis was done for two cases – including and excluding sea salt aerosol (SSA). The absolute mass of import is higher for Poland than the UK in the case of pollutants for which SSA is not the main contributor (e. g. NO3−, NH4+). Excluding SSA the import of PPM2.5 and PPM10 is higher for Poland than the UK. Including SSA, for both countries the mass of imported PPM10 and PPM2.5 is higher than the national total emission. For most of the considered pollutants the highest contribution of import was calculated for the north-west and west part of the UK and the west and south-west part of Poland.