Air pollution by particulate matter with a particle diameter between 2.5 and 10 µm (PM10) is going up recently in the entire Danube region, Bulgaria [1, 2, 5, 6]. The sources of dust on the territory of Bulgaria are industry, transport and domestic heating by solid fuel [12]. PM10 levels for the Danube region in Bulgaria mark a significant increase during the autumn-winter period compared to the levels during the spring-summer period. For example in Ruse – a city belonging to this region the levels of PM10 are going up recently [5]. The biggest peak of PM10 levels for the autumn-winter period is usually observed in January months. It is in January that the number of days in which there is exceedance of the limit values of the PM10 levels is maximum observed.
This paper is one continuation of our investigations of PM10 pollution for Danube region, Bulgaria especially for another city of the region - Silistra. It is devoted to examine the PM10 pollution during winter and its relationship with atmospheric characteristics (temperature, atmospheric pressure and humidity). It presents a statistical analysis of the level of PM10 air pollution in Silistra using data from the official monitoring stations in the city. The measurements cover the period since 2011 till 2017. Descriptive statistics of PM10 and atmospheric characteristics – temperature, atmospheric pressure and relative humidity as well as linear regression modeling are presented and commented in the paper.
