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Athens is surrounded by sources of air pollutants that fill its atmosphere, along with the pollution from the city. The dust from the Sahara desert is not the only factor that aggravates the atmosphere in the Greek capital.

According to a recent research, Athens is located in the middle of the range of air pollutants that are produced in large urban centres such as Istanbul, the Black Sea region, neighbouring countries on the Balkan peninsula, the industrial zone in northern Italy as well as the urban and industrial centres of Central and Western Europe, but to a much lesser extent.

The data for carried pollutants were reported by the National Observatory of Athens within the research program CITYZEN-FP7 and published in the online edition of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The findings are based on research held from January 2006 to December 2008.

"The research continues and the results show that by the pollution in the atmosphere Athens could easily be compared with megalopolises as Istanbul, Cairo, London and Los Angeles," says the researcher from the National Observatory Dr. Evangelos Gerasopoulos for Ethnos newspaper. "We judge which the main sources of the particles carried to Athens are
depending on the direction of air currents and in combination with the chemical analysis of the samples."

The statistical processing of the data shows five main directions of air currents. The first category includes the western and northwestern winds. According to measurements, the winds with a greater trajectory that come directly from the Atlantic pollute the atmosphere in the Greek capital the least.
 
Northwest winds with a small trajectory that carry air masses from the large urban and industrial centres of western and central Europe also carry air pollutants. However, they are insignificant due to the measures which were taken in recent decades.

On the contrary, the volume of particles that are carried to Athens from the northeastern and northern winds is very large. It is indicative that the northeastern winds with greater trajectory that come from Central Asia carry to Athens much less pollutants than the winds coming from Istanbul and the Black Sea.

The study indicates that human activities in the 15-millionth Istanbul and fires that erupt each summer on the northern Black Sea coast significantly pollute the atmosphere over Athens. Northern winds carry microparticles from electricity production plants in the Balkan countries. Western winds that are drawing researchers’ interest are those with a small trajectory that carry pollutants from the industrial area in Milan.

However, the most serious air pollution in the Greek capital is caused by southern and southwestern winds, which carry large amounts of dust from northern Africa.