| Summary: | From a legislators point of view, the contribution of natural sources to PM<sub>10</sub> loads is relevant since their impact can be subtracted from the daily limit value of PM<sub>10</sub> as regulated in a working staff paper by the European Commission (EC), supporting the European Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC). This work investigates its applicability for two stations in Austria over a time period of six years (2013 to 2018), as the occurrence of long-range transport of desert dust is observed on a regular base. Different stations and different statistical parameters were evaluated to determine the regional background load and subsequently the net dust load (NDL). Results reveal an adapted approach of the methodology described by the EC, using the +/− 15-day mean average of the PM<sub>10</sub> at the regional background station, together with threshold criteria to identify only desert dust affected days. The results of calculated NDLs were in good agreement with crustal loads determined on filter samples during two desert dust events in 2016. Thus, the application of the EC method for a region in Central Europe, which experiences a regular but less pronounced impact of desert dust than stations in the Mediterranean, is discussed.
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