The seasonal changes in ambient mass concentrations and chemical composition of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) were investigated in three locations in Poland. The analyses included PM 2.5 -bound hazardous benzo(a )pyrene (BaP), As, Ni, Cd, and Pb. The samples of PM 2.5 were collected daily in Katowice (southern Poland, urban background site), Gdańsk, and Diabla Góra (northern Poland, urban and regional background sites, respectively) during 1-year-long campaign in 2010. Based on monthly ambient concentrations of PM 2.5 -bound carbon (organic and elemental), water-soluble ions (Na + , NH 4 + , K + , Mg 2+ , Ca 2+ , Cl − , NO 3 − , SO 4 2− ), and elements As, Ni, Cd, Pb, Ti, Al, Fe, the chemical mass closure of PM 2.5 was checked for each of the four seasons of the year and for the heating and non-heating periods at each site. Also, the annual concentrations of PM 2.5 were determined and the annual PM 2.5 mass closure checked. At each measuring point, the PM 2.5 concentrations were high compared to its Polish yearly permissible value, 25 μg/m 3 , and its concentrations elsewhere in Europe. The highest annual PM 2.5 concentration, 43 μg/m 3 , occurred in Katowice; it was twice the annual PM 2.5 concentration in Gdańsk, and thrice the one in Diabla Góra. The high annual averages were due to very high monthly concentrations in the heating period, which were highest in the winter. PM 2.5 consisted mainly of carbonaceous matter (elemental carbon (EC) + organic matter (OM), the sum of elemental carbon, EC, and organic matter, OM; its annual mass contributions to PM 2.5 were 43, 31, and 33 % in Katowice, Gdansk, and Diabla Góra, respectively), secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA), the Na_Cl group, and crustal matter (CM)-in the decreasing order of their yearly mass contributions to PM 2.5 . OM, EC, SIA, Na_Cl, and CM accounted for almost 81 % of the PM 2.5 mass in Katowice, 74 % in Gdańsk, and 90 % in Diabla Góra. The annual average toxic metal contribution to the PM 2.5 mass was not greater than 0.2 % at each site. In Katowice and Gdańsk, the yearly ambient BaP concentrations were high (15.4 and 3.2 ng/m 3 , respectively); in rural Diabla Góra, the concentrations of BaP were almost equal to 1 ng/m 3 , the Polish BaP annual limit. The great seasonal fluctuations of the shares of the component groups in PM 2.5 and of the concentrations of PM 2.5 and its components are due to the seasonal fluctuations of the emissions of PM and its precursors from hard and brown coal combustion for energy production, growing in a heating season, reaching maximum in winter, and decreasing in a nonheating period. In Gdańsk, northern Poland, especially in the spring and autumn, sea spray might have affected the chemical composition of PM 2.5 . The greatest hazard from PM 2.5 occurs in Katowice, southern Poland, in winter, when very high concentrations of PM 2.5 and PM 2.5 -related carbonaceous matter, including BaP, are maintained by poor natural ventilation in cities, weather conditions, and the highest level of industrialization in...

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The aim of this study was to identify a situation of stratospheric to tropospheric air mass transport (STT), and then attempt to answer the question whether beryllium (7 Be) can be a good marker of stratospheric ozone (O 3) origin in the surface boundary layer of the atmosphere (SL) and its role in the tropospheric ozone budget. The sets of data covering the yearly period are examined such as: the daily activity concentration of 7 Be and lead (210 Pb), the hourly concentration of ground-level ozone O 3 and the meteorological parameters measured in SL in a meteorological station located in the town of Raciborz in southern Poland. The data obtained had undergone statistical and Fourier analysis. The data obtained had undergone Fourier analysis in order to eliminate the periodicity associated with, inter alia, the annual variability of solar radiation incoming to the Earth's surface. Then, based on statistical analysis potential days in which very likely was the occurrence of the so-called phenomenon "stratospheric intrusion" (SI) were identified. The selected periods were then analysed in terms of synoptic assessment of the impact of meteorological conditions on levels of 7 Be and O 3. For the selected case a detailed analysis was carried out based on the surface and upper air observations, satellite remote sensing, profile data and ground-level ozone. The use of trace methods based on the identification of concentrations of naturally occurring radionuclides as 7 Be and 210 Pb in SL of the atmosphere is

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