Comparison of biomass burning tracer concentrations between two winter seasons in Krynica Zdrój

Biomass burning is one source of air pollution that emits soot, smoke, particulate matter, free radicals and other substances, affecting human health, air quality, cloud formation processes and climate change. During biomass burning, organic biomass burning tracers are emitted, such as levoglucosan and its isomers mannosan and galactosan, which are formed at temperatures above 300 °C during cellulose and hemicellulose pyrolysis. The objective of this research is the measurement of biomass burning tracer concentrations in PM10 samples in Krynica during two winter seasons from 01.12.2017 to 31.03.2018 and from 01.12.2018 to 26.03.2019. The average concentrations of organic carbon were 9.48 μg/m3 in the 2017/2018 season and 8.79 μg/m3 in the 2018/2019 season. The average concentration of levoglucosan in the PM10 samples in 2017/2018 was 137 ng/m3, while in 2018/2019, the average concentration reached 245 ng/m3. Levoglucosan was the dominant compound among the determined biomass burning tracers, accounting for 88.6% in 2017/2018 and 72.4% in 2018/2019. The conducted measurements show that the levoglucosan to mannosan ratio was equal to 10.5 and 3.9 in 2017/2018 and 2018/2019, respectively. The biomass smoke organic carbon was approximately 10.6% in 2017/2018 and 20.5% in 2018/2019. These results correspond to the contribution of biomass smoke to organic carbon, which was equal to 14.4% and 28.4% in the 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 seasons, respectively.