Author(s)

REBECCA CARUANA, ALFRED MICALLEF

Abstract

Previous studies reported that the two main contributors to air pollution in the central Mediterranean region are ship emissions and emissions originating from the volcano on Mount Etna in Sicily. The objective of the work presented here is to investigate a possible link between the said pollution sources and concentration measurements obtained during a 4-month monitoring campaign which took place in 2021. Data was collected at the Giordan Lighthouse monitoring station, on the island of Gozo, forming part of the Maltese archipelago, in the central Mediterranean, which is ideally located to study regional atmospheric pollution. Furthermore, a relationship between black carbon in atmospheric aerosol and sulphur dioxide was sought. From February to May 2021, real-time measurements of black carbon and sulphur dioxide concentrations were obtained using an aethalometer, a multi-angle absorption photometer and a sulphur dioxide analyser. Meteorological parameters, e.g., wind speed and direction, were also measured concurrently. It was observed that during episodes linked to peak concentrations of the said pollutants, the prevailing wind was from the east–south sector, which diverges significantly from the direction of the two primary sources relative to the monitoring site, implying that there exists the possibility that the emission source/s associated with the data used in this current research differs from the ones previously documented. The outcome of this study necessitates further investigation of the air pollution scenario in the central Mediterranean.

Keywords

central Mediterranean, black carbon, sulphur dioxide, air pollution meteorology