Urban background levels of particle number concentration and sources in Vilnius, Lithuania

•The aerosol PNC and size distribution in the urban environment were described.•PNC level was influenced by source regions in industrial areas of Central Europe.•The PNC variations are induced by emissions of traffic and combustion processes.

This study presents results of research on urban aerosol particles with a focus on the aerosol particle number concentration (PNC) and the particle size distribution. The real time measurements of aerosol PNC (> 4.5 nm) and number size distributions (9–840 nm) were performed. The seasonal variations essentially comprised the minimum monthly mean in October 2010 (3400 ± 3000 cm− 3) and the maximum in April 2011 (19,000 ± 15,000 cm− 3). The mean annual PNC was 10,000 ± 8000 cm− 3 with an average mode size of 30–50 nm. The presence of strong diurnal patterns in aerosol PNC was evident as a direct effect of three sources of aerosol particles (nucleation, traffic, and residential heating). Hybrid receptor modeling potential source contribution function (PSCF) and concentration weighted trajectory (CWT) were used by incorporating 72-h backward trajectories and measurements of PNC in Vilnius. The results of trajectory clustering and the PSCF method demonstrated that possible additional source areas contributing to the elevated particle number concentration in Vilnius could be industrial areas in central Europe. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed highest loadings for PNC, PM10, NOx, NO, NO2 and SO2 concentrations, indicating combustion processes occurring in vehicle engines and use of sulfur-containing fossil fuels for residential heating.