High-mountain monitoring of persistent organic pollutants at the basic environmental observatory moussala

In this paper we present the performance of the equipment for passive air sampling installed at Basic Environmental Observatory (BEO) Moussala, together with the first results obtained during the campaigns conducted in the period March 2009 March 2011 within the framework of the network for POP monitoring (MONET EU Project).The advantage of sampling at BEO Moussala is that the observatory is located at a high altitude (Moussala Peak, 2925 m above sea level), away from industrial polluters and large transportation fluxes. This unique location allows one to gather data from a large region subjected to the influence of transboundary Mediterranean and continental air masses. This would further open possibilities for studying the pollutants' levels and their correlation with the local climatic factors, the latter being well known in this region.