Abstract:

Atmospheric concentrations of inorganic pollutants (NO2, SO2 and ozone) were measured at three different sampling sites in Eskişehir. Samples were collected between 25th of March and 8th of April 2016 by using passive sampling method. During two-week sampling study, each week was divided to three sub-periods to investigate weekday and weekend differences of the pollutant concentrations. One-time vehicle counts during morning, noon and evening hours for both weekday and weekend periods were inspected. The highest NO2 concentrations were measured at the sampling site having urban, traffic and residential characteristics. Positive relationship between NO2 concentrations and traffic density was observed. Reverse trend was determined for ozone. Ozone concentrations were higher at the sampling site far from the city center. Spatial variations of SO2 concentrations were similar to those of NO2. Weekday NO2 concentrations were higher than weekend concentrations while higher ozone concentrations were observed in weekend. Weekend and weekday SO2 concentrations were quite similar at all sampling sites. Beside spatial variations, vertical variations of each pollutant were also investigated. NO2 concentrations decreased with the elevation and reverse case was observed for ozone with increasing concentrations at the same elevation range. SO2 concentrations increased with the elevation due to chimney gas emissions.

Keywords: