Journal of Atmospheric and Solar–Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004

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Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics

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Research Paper

Cloud condensation nuclei and backward trajectories of air masses at Mt.

Moussala in two months of 2016
Viktoria Kleshtanova a, b, *, Vesselin Tonchev a, Anastasiya Stoycheva b, Christo Angelov c
a
Faculty of Physics, Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, 1164, Bulgaria
b
Department of Forecasts and Information Service, Division Meteorological Forecasts, National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH), Sofia, 1784, Bulgaria
c
Institute of Nuclear Research and Nuclear Energy – Bulgarian Academy of Science, 1784, Sofia, Bulgaria

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Dora Pancheva This study presents the results about the influence of the weather elements on the Cloud Condensation Nuclei
(CCN) size distribution. For this purpose the data for summer (July) and winter (December) conditions of 2016
Keywords: from the highest in the Balkan Peninsula Environmental Observatory on Mt. Moussala are used for finding the
Cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) extrema of the CCN concentrations. To characterize the synoptic situation we extend our study with data for the
Distributions of CCN
geopotential height, wind and temperature at 700 hPa for the considered two months. We use the HYSPLIT
Backward trajectories
model of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to trace the backward trajectories of the air
Synoptic analyses
Mt. Moussala masses for the previous 72 h before their arrival at Mt. Moussala. Thus we identify two major types of trajec­
tories, sea and continental, depending on the time spent over the corresponding surface and three groups ac­
cording to the predominant height, from the lowest to the highest one. The prevailing trajectory type in the two
months studied is the continental one. During most of July the air masses are coming along the high layers of the
atmosphere, while in December the majority of the trajectories are coming from the lowest layers. We match
these two types of trajectories with an existing synoptic classification scheme of the weather patterns over the
Balkan region.

1. Introduction
The atmospheric aerosols as dust, sea salt, soot, pollens, viruses, etc.,
originate from both natural and anthropogenic sources, like volcanic
eruptions, traffic, biomass burning, etc. These are the primary emitted
particles. On the other hand, the oxidation of the gasses, for example
sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic gasses, leads
eventually to the formation of secondary particles in the atmosphere
(Pöschl, 2005; Seinfeld et al., 1998).
The human contribution to the climate change is through the radi­
ative forcing due to the aerosol-cloud interactions, that influence the
microphysical properties of the clouds and it is a major component of the
global warming. The indirect influence of these interactions, which
affect the net atmospheric heating rate and its impact on the average
amount of precipitation on the global scale, is not investigated by the
type and the spatiotemporal distribution of the precipitation (Boucher
et al., 2013).
There are two general ways of increasing the supersaturation of the
air masses, through cooling or moistening them, which enable the
atmospheric aerosols to play the role of CCN and form a cloud. In this
process the size, composition and mixing ratio of the atmospheric
aerosols are also important (Andreae and Rosenfeld, 2008; Dusek et al.,
2006; Krüger et al., 2014; McFiggans et al., 2006; Su et al., 2010). The
maximum supersaturation in the atmospheric clouds is RH = 102%
(Hudson, 1993). Some studies (Crosbie et al., 2015; Dusek et al., 2006;
Ervens et al., 2007) show that the change of the chemical composition of
the aerosols in determining the needed supersaturation for their acti­
vation as CCN is less significant than the change in their sizes.
The CCN and their activity have been described already in the theory
of Köhler (1936) which takes into account the droplet surface tension,
the quantity of the solute, the density of the pure water, the molecular
weight of the water, the ambient temperature and the droplet diameter.
Additionally, the CCN are described by the so called “hygroscopicity
parameter” κ, see Petters and Kreidenweis (2007).
The simulated and field-based observations over a sea and conti­
nental environment at a given supersaturation show that the majority of
droplets are with smaller sizes when the concentration of CCN is larger.
This is the reason for the change of the radiation of the cloud, its lifetime

* Corresponding author. Faculty of Physics, Department of Meteorology and Geophysics, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, 1164, Bulgaria.
E-mail address: viktoria.kleshtanova@phys.uni-sofia.bg (V. Kleshtanova).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2023.106004
Received 26 October 2022; Received in revised form 4 January 2023; Accepted 6 January 2023
Available online 9 January 2023
1364-6826/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
V. Kleshtanova et al.
and therefore the climate system changes (Albrecht, 1989; Andreae
et al., 2004; Miao et al., 2015; Ramanathan et al., 2001; Twomey and
Warner, 1967).
The CCN can be clearly distinguished from other atmospheric par­
ticles through measurements and models, due to the advances in tech­
nology and many years of atmospheric research by scientists from all
over the world. Although various differential mobility analyzers have
become better developed and widespread (Knutson and Whitby, 1975),
and the measurements of the distribution of environment aerosols also
have dramatically increased recently, these data on a global scale are
still insufficient and measurements from nearby stations are often used
and compared (Kim et al., 2011). It is important to note that the CCN
cannot be detected directly. However, indirect methods have been
developed to estimate water vapor supersaturation in the cloud. This can
be done, for example, by measuring the thermal gradient in the
continuous-flow by a CCN counter. Most likely, cloud particles are
processed by a series of non-precipitation cloud cycles, usually of the
order of 10 or more (Hoppel et al., 1996). Therefore, as it has been
mentioned in the beginning, the particles are activated in cloud droplets
at different supersaturations. For this reason, a single supersaturation is
not enough to describe the entire available spectrum of nuclei (droplets).
For this purpose the CCN are often compared at different meteorological
parameters, such as temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction
and rainfall (Gautam et al., 2021).
Besides the CCN distribution, other data are obtained with the help
of the backward trajectories of the air masses, which allow some at­
mospheric processes, such as air pollution, dispersion of hazardous
substances or the CCN behavior in different synoptic situations, to be
better described. The backward trajectories can be obtained by models
based on different characteristics. Such models are: (i) the Hybrid Single
Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT), developed by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where
dispersion and deposition may be considered (Draxler and Hess, 1997);
(ii) the Flexible Trajectories (FLEXTRA) model, which permits boundary
layer trajectories and calculations with the vertical wind component
equal to zero (Stohl, 1999), and (iii) the recent METeorological data
Explorer (METEX), which accepts meteorological data in different for­
mats (Zeng et al., 2010). Numerous studies have been made to find
correlations between the backward trajectories and the synoptic situa­
tions or individual meteorological parameters and elements, such as
wind, clouds or precipitation, moisture content of the air mass, etc.
(Gautam et al., 2021; Herenz et al., 2019; Hondula et al., 2010; Liu et al.,
2020; Sogacheva et al., 2007; Soltani et al., 2014; Tošić and Unkašević,
2013; Yang et al., 2017; Yum et al., 2005). They are also used in the
atmospheric chemistry, for example, for tracing the pollutants, analysis
of ozone and photochemistry of trace gases (Pérez et al., 2015). The first
measurements in many places in Europe have been made recently to find
links between the air masses and the precipitation by using backward
trajectories. For example, it has been shown for Belgrade (Serbia) that
such link exists in more than half of the city’s precipitations when the
airflow is from southwest, southeast or northwest (Tošić and Unkašević,
2013). The southeastern Adriatic region is dominated by precipitation
from the Mediterranean Sea (Durašković et al., 2012). The backward
trajectories related to the transport of dust from the Sahara and the
synoptic conditions with the presence of “red” or “blood” rains
throughout Europe were traced. The largest number of these situations is
reported in Spain, due to its geographical location relative to Sahara
(White et al., 2012).
The motivation for the current study comes the growing interest in
aerosol research, as it has been mentioned above, including that in the
CCN. The calculations of the backward trajectories (the more frequently
used type as compared to the forward trajectories) from the HYSPLIT
model, which is the most widely used model, are considered in the
paper. The found air trajectories reveal that emissions from distant
sources may cross boundaries and impact remote unpolluted areas or
places where emission control strategies have been implemented or
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Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004
where the use of certain substances have been restricted or even banned.
The CCN data are detected at Basic Environmental Observatory (BEO)
Moussala, where a CCN counter has been installed. The BEO Moussala is
located at Mt. Moussala (with an altitude of 2925.4 m) - the highest
mount not only in Bulgaria but also in the entire Balkan Peninsula. The
observatory is equipped with unique measuring instruments for the
Balkan Peninsula. It is important to be mentioned that due to its
geographical location and altitude, it is in the cloud layer for the most
days of the year.
2. Materials and methods
In this study, the period from July 01, 2016 to July 31, 2016 and
from December 01, 2016 to December 31, 2016 is considered. Data from
BEO Moussala (“BEO Moussala”) is used for the distribution of the CCN,
detected for six supersaturations (SS) (0.13%; 0.23%; 0.43%; 0.63%;
0.83% and 1.03%). Correlation between them and the data from simu­
lations of the backward trajectories of the air masses, that reached Mt.
Moussala at 12 UTC every day for the studied period, received from
HYSPLIT, is obtained. Furthermore, geopotential height at 700 hPa,
temperature anomaly at 700 hPa [◦ C] and wind’s direction and speed
[m/s] at 700 hPa, detected at the synoptic station of the National
Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology (NIMH), which is situated also
on Mt. Moussala, are used. The data for CCN and these from the back­
ward trajectories are considered on an average daily scale; the meteo­
rological data is in all-daily synoptic terms – 00, 03, 06, 09, 12, 15, 18,
21 UTC. A longer period of time and the distribution of CCN on a 3-h
scale has to be considered too.
2.1. Cloud condensation nuclei counter (CCNC)
The CCNC, installed on BEO Moussala is CCNC-100 model, devel­
oped by Droplet Measurement Technologies, Boulder, CO, USA. The
counter is a continuous-flow, thermal-gradient diffusion chamber
(Roberts and Nenes, 2005). It creates a new comma-separated value
(CSV) file every hour. The data structure of these files is described in the
instrument manual (“CCNC operator manual”) which data is collected
every second. The CCNC’s main measurement outputs are the total
number concentration and sizes of CCN at a given supersaturation (SS)
(Uin, 2016). SS is given in percent (%), thus being dimensionless. The
CCNC software allows the user to change the supersaturation value so
that it is appropriate for the location where the CCNC is installed and it
can be varied between 0.07% and 2%. The particle sizes are measured in
microns and divided into 20 bins, with the bins’ upper boundaries at
0.75 μm, 1.0 μm, 1.5 μm, …, and continuing with a 0.5 μm increment
until the last bin’s upper boundary of 10 μm. The CCN number con­
centration (“conc.“) is measured per cubic centimeter of air (#/cm3).
The instrument has been installed at BEO Moussala since December
2015. The set of supersaturations is fixed by manufacturer during the
installation and it comprises the values of 0.13%, 0.23%, 0.43%, 0.63%,
0.83% and 1.03%, and they are altered every 10 min in the course of the
CCN counting. The data used by the device in the present study are the
distributions of CCN in the individual bins (by size) and the total con­
centration, which are updated every second. To obtain the daily average
value of these data, the GNU OCTAVE (“GNU Octave”) programming
language is used.
2.2. HYSPLIT
Version 4.9 of the HYSPLIT model (“HYSPLIT”) is used in this study,
with the meteorological data obtained from the system of the National
Weather Service’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction
(NCEP), which runs a series of computer analyses and forecasts opera­
tionally. One of the operational systems is GDAS (Global Data Assimi­
lation System), which contains a number of meteorological fields. For
example, temperature, pressure, relative humidity, U- and V-component
V. Kleshtanova et al.
of the wind at a height of 10 m, amount of cloudiness, amount of pre­
cipitation per 6 h, and others. At NOAA’s Air Resources Laboratory
(ARL), NCEP model outputs are used for air quality transport and
dispersion (“GDAS1”). The error of trajectories from HYSPLIT is esti­
mated to be in the interval 15%–30% of the travel distance (Stohl,
1999).
In order to run the model (online), the geographical coordinates of
BEO Moussala are set as latitude: 42◦ 10′ 45′′ N and longitude: 23◦ 35′
07′′ E, as well as the altitude - 2925 m. The chosen duration of the tra­
jectories is 72 h since it describes well the path of air masses over the
European continent, and several studies have been done for the same
period of time in different parts of the world, for example in Valencia by
Estellés et al. (2004) and on the west coast of Korea by Yum et al., in
2005 (Yum et al., 2005). The backward trajectories used in the present
study reach Mt. Moussala at 12 UTC every day of July and December
2016 (Fig. 1a and b respectively).
The backward trajectories are divided by several features, which are
well adapted for the Balkan region: (1) The first one is relative to the
underlying surface over which the relevant air mass moves most of the
time (over 36 h, i.e. over 50%). Thus, two types of air masses are
separated - sea and continental (S and C), relative to the predominant
time they spend on the respective underlying surface. Depending on the
thickness of the layer of the atmosphere in which the relevant trajectory
moves, two more features of separation of the trajectories are obtained.
The minimum and maximum altitudes (min and max altitude) (2 and 3)
through which the corresponding trajectory is drawn. They, in turn, also
have subtypes.
• high (H) > 4500;
• medium (M) [1500–4499];
• low (L) [0–1499].
(4) In order to find a connection with the applicable operational
practice in the Bulgarian Met Office (NIMH), a classification, based on
the circulatory features of the synoptic conditions is used. In the period
Fig. 1. Backward trajectory, reached BEO Moussala at 12 UTC on (a) July 21, 2016 and (b) December 15, 2016 (“HYSPLIT Trajectory Model”). Each point on the
trajectory corresponds to a 6-h hour time interval.
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Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004
studied, grouping of trajectories is made according to the weather types
by Bakalov (1942): Mediterranean (ocean) type (NW), northeastern
continental (NE), western (Mediterranean) (W) and anticyclonic (AC).
Although the scheme is old and does not take into account the details
related to all types of atmospheric circulation over the Balkan Peninsula,
the study can serve as a starting point. (5) A more detailed grouping of
the trajectories with identification of advective and non-advective
portion was made by Stefanov et al. (1960). According to this classifi­
cation, the advective (cyclonic) portion has four subtypes - Atlantic
(Atl), Mediterranean (Med), Continental (Cont) and Low gradient
pressure (LGP).
Each of the advective subtypes also have three subtypes, marked
with numbers, all of which are described in detail by Stefanov et al.
(1960). There are three types of Atlantic (ocean) advections: subtype
Atl1 - oceanic advection by cyclone, subtype Atl2 - oceanic advection by
anticyclone, and subtype Atl3 - mixed type of oceanic advection under
the combined influence of cyclone and anticyclone. The continental
advections are divided into: subtype Cont1 – advection of continental air
masses from the sector northwest and north, subtype Cont2 - advection
of continental air masses from the sector north and northeast, subtype
Cont3 - advection of continental air masses from the sector north-east,
subtype Cont4 - advection of continental air masses from the east and
south-east sectors. The Mediterranean advections are described in de­
tails by Stoev and Guerova (2020). All advective subtypes are sketched
in Fig. 2a, with a zoom of Mediterranean advections in Fig. 2b. The
non-advective (anticyclonic) portion is divided into anticyclonic type
(AC) - winter and summer anticyclone; type of weather LGP - weather in
anticyclonic (AC) and cyclonic (C) baric situation.
With the grouping of the air masses, another 31 rows with 5 columns
are added to the data set of CCN. Based on the array of these data, after
grouping the same conditions of the trajectories, some of the figures
presented in the results are obtained.
V. Kleshtanova et al. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004

Fig. 2. Mediterranean, Atlantic and Continental advections over Bulgaria (a) by Stefanov et al. and a zoom of Mediterranean (b) (Stefanov et al., 1960).

Fig. 3. Distribution of CCN at a given supersaturation: (a) 0.13%; (b) 0.23%; (c) 0.43%; (d) 0.63%; (e) 0.83%; (f) 1.03% in July 2016. Each curve represents the
corresponding day (legend to the right of the graphs).

4
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2.3. Meteorological data
The meteorological data used in the present study, wind’s direction
and speed, are obtained from the NIMH station, which is also located at
Mt. Moussala. They are reported in all synoptic terms daily - 00, 03, 06,
09, 12, 15, 18, 21 UTC. Maps from the Global Forecasting System (GFS),
maintained by the NCEP, freely available from the archive (“Wetter3”;
“Wetterzentrale”), are used to illustrate the analysis of the weather sit­
uation. The analysis itself was prepared following the established
long-term operational practices, updated with modern methods for
describing the weather processes used in the “Meteorological Forecasts”
department of NIMH.
3. Results
3.1. CCN’s characteristics in July and December 2016
3.1.1. CCN’s distributions
The distribution of CCN by size is given by:
Nd
nd = 100 % (1)
N
where Nd is the number of CCN with size d and N is the total number in
the same volume (Krastanov et al., 1978). In Fig. 3 are shown the CCN
distributions for each day of July 2016 – the percentage of the given size
from the total number as function of the size, for the six supersaturations
separately.
In both figures the transformation – the division by N in equation (1),
brings the distributions to a universal form and we will use N further as
characteristic for the corresponding days and study its behavior in time.
The use of different supersaturations reveals some differences, see
Fig. 3. For example, at SS = 0.13% (Fig. 3a) and SS = 0.23% (Fig. 3b) the
most frequent diameter of CCN is 2 μm; at SS = 0.43% this maximum
remains, but appears a second, smaller one, at 3 μm. With the other three
supersaturations used (0.63%, 0.83% and 1.03%) the 2 μm-peak is not
found, but peaks for sizes 3 μm and 5.5 μm are observed. The most
frequent diameter in a distribution is called a modal diameter as shown
in Table 1.
3.1.2. Concentration of CCN
Concentrations of CCN are presented separately for each of the used
supersaturation, on a daily average scale for the two months considered,
July and December 2016 in Fig. 4, respectively (a) and (b). The figure
shows that the concentrations of nuclei are significantly higher in July
than in December. In addition, in both months there are days with peak
concentrations. In July these are 5th, 6th and 13th, and in December:
2nd, 6th and 12th. In July there is a clear minimum of the concentration
- on the 18th. We examine further in the text the reasons for these highs
and lows.
In addition, from Fig. 4, it is clear that in the summer month the CCN
number concentration is (~4–5 times for the peak values) higher than in
the winter. Some reasons could be hypothesized concerning the differ­
ences between July and December: (i) More pollutants including pollens
and also resulting from large fires in agricultural areas are to be expected
in July; (ii) Saharan dust transport is more intensive in July; (iii) In July
the differently heated mountain slopes of the peak create conditions for
the initiation of a local mountain-valley breeze that rises up some local
aerosols.
Table 1
Modal diameter of CCN at a given supersaturation.
SS [%] 0.13 0.23 0.43 0.63 0.83 1.03
dm [μm] 2 2 2 3 5.5 5.5
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Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004
3.2. Types of air masses reaching BEO Moussala
A grouping of the air masses reaching the Mt. Moussala based on the
backward trajectories obtained by the HYSPLIT model of NOAA. First, in
Fig. 5, a grouping of CCN number conc. Relative to the thickness of the
atmospheric layer in which the air mass is moving during the last 72 h
before reaching BEO Moussala. Three-layer separation conditions were
selected.
• high (H) > 4500;
• medium (M) [1500–4499];
• low (L) [0–1499].
In July 2016 (Fig. 5a) the influence of trajectories reaching Moussala
from the higher layers of the atmosphere prevails (17 days in total),
followed by those from the lowest layers (9 days), and the least are the
days affected by air masses coming from the middle atmospheric layers
(5 days). In December 2016 (Fig. 5b) the influence of air masses prevails
or originates from or passes through the lowest layers of the atmosphere
(13 days), followed by the influence of the upper layers (10 days), and in
the remaining 8 days the influence is of medium layers.
On the other hand, CCN number concentrations are grouped ac­
cording to the types of weather proposed by Stefanov et al. that influ­
enced atmospheric circulation over Bulgaria (Stefanov et al., 1960). In
July 2016 (Fig. 6a) the most common type is Atl2 (11 days) with an
average concentration of CCN 844 #/cm3, and the rarest (only 1 day)
was reported effect of type Cont1 with a concentration of 578 #/cm3. In
December 2016 (Fig. 6b) the most common type Cont1 (7 days) with an
average concentration of CCN 101 #/cm3, and the rarest (only 1 day)
was reported effect of type LGP-c with a concentration of 57 #/cm3.
And the last grouping is the division by time, which the air masses
spend over the underlying surface (Fig. 7). In both months continental
(C) air masses prevailed – 30 days in July and 21 days in December.
However, in December the median of the C air masses was 47 #/cm3 and
that of the sea masses is 57 #/cm3. In July, on the other hand, practically
all of the trajectories are continental, except for one day.
3.3. Meteo data
NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis shows that in July the mean over northern
regions of Europe is cyclonic with center of the cyclone between Iceland,
British Isles and Norway. Over the rest, most of Europe, including
Bulgaria, geopotential mean is anticyclonic (Fig. 8a). In December at
700 hPa a baric trough influences over East Europe and Balkan Penin­
sula. The geopotential mean over the rest regions of Europe is anticy­
clonic (Fig. 8b).
In July over most of regions in Europe, including Bulgaria the tem­
perature anomaly at 700 hPa is positive: between 0.3 K and 1.5 K.
Negative temperature anomaly is having place over Scotland, southern
parts of Scandinavian Peninsula and central Mediterranean Sea
(Fig. 9a). In December over Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, Black Sea and
southern parts of European Russia the temperature anomaly at 700 hPa
is negative: from 1 K to over 3 K. Over the rest regions in Europe the
temperature anomaly at 700 hPa is positive (Fig. 9b).
3.3.1. Extremes of CCN’s concentration in July and December
As shown in Fig. 4 in July there are four extrema in CCN concen­
tration distribution. These are 5th, 6th, considered as one synoptic sit­
uation, 13th (the maxima) and 18th (the minimum). In December there
are three clear maxima on 2nd, 6th and 12th.
NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis in July shows that during maximum of CCN
concentration (5th, 6th, 13th) geopotential mean at 700 hPa over
Bulgaria is anticyclonic (Fig. 10a) or LGP-ac (Fig. 10b), while during
minimum of CCN (18th) geopotential mean at 700 hPa is cyclonic –
Bulgaria and entire Balkan Peninsula are influenced by baric trough
(Fig. 10c). The reanalysis of temperature in July shows that during the
V. Kleshtanova et al. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004

Fig. 4. CCN number conc. At all used supersaturations during (a) July and (b) December 2016.

Fig. 5. Box Plot of CCN number conc. Grouped by Atmosphere layers for (a) July and (b) December 2016.

Fig. 6. Box Plot of CCN number concentrations grouped by Weather types by Stefanov for (a) July and (b) December 2016.

5th and 6th (Fig. 10d) there is no temperature anomaly over Bulgaria, (Fig. 11a, b, 11c) Balkan Peninsula is influenced by baric trough at
during 13th (Fig. 10e) it is positive and during 18th it is negative 700 hPa. The temperature anomaly is negative in the first two cases
(Fig. 10f). (Fig. 11d and e). In the last one the temperature anomaly over south­
In December during all days with maximum of CCN’s concentration western Bulgaria, where the Mt. Moussala is placed, is positive, while

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Fig. 7. Box Plot of CCN number concentration grouped by underlying surface (Sea and Continental) for (a) July and (b) December 2016.

Fig. 8. Geopotential mean at 700 hPa on climate timescale, 1981–2010: NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis for (a) July and (b) December 2016 (“NOAA”).

Fig. 9. Temperature anomaly at 700 hPa (1981–2010) – NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis for (a) July and (b) December 2016 (“NOAA”).

over northeastern Bulgaria the temperatures are around their averages station at Mt. Moussala in all synoptic terms (main and intermediate) -
(Fig. 11f). 00, 03, 06, 09, 12, 15, 18, 21 UTC (Kleshtanova et al., 2019). When the
The behavior of the wind is also studied and the wind roses are weather is quiet, there is no data on roses. In July, in the days when the
drawn for the days studied (Fig. 12). The wind data are from the NIMH maximum concentration is observed (Fig. 12a and b), the wind is mostly

7
V. Kleshtanova et al.
Fig. 10. NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (1981–2010) in July. Geopotential mean at 700 hPa: (a) 4th-7th, (b) 12th-14th, (c) 17th-19th and temperature anomaly at 700 hPa
in these days respectively: (d), (e) and (f) (“NOAA”).
northwestern, to moderate, with a speed of up to 9 m/s. During the
observed minimum (Fig. 12c), a strong north-northeast wind was re­
ported in one of the terms, which is probably the reason for the low
concentration of nuclei during that day.
In December, the concentration of CCN is significantly lower than in
July. Strong and stormy winds were registered at all reported maxima,
on one of the days up to 29 m/s (Fig. 12d, e, 12f).
4. Discussion and conclusions
This study presents results about the influence of the weather ele­
ments on the CCN measured at the highest mount of the Balkan Penin­
sula, Mt. Moussala (Rila Mountain, Bulgaria) for typical summer (July)
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Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004
and winter (December) conditions of 2016, which have been barely
considered and poorly understood up to now. It is shown that the CCN
number concentration in July is much higher than that in the winter
(even up to 4–5 times). Further, we demonstrate how to bring the CCN
distributions measured for six different supersaturations (SS) (0.13%,
0.23%, 0.43%, 0.63%, 0.83%, 1.03%) to their universal forms: through
rescaling the counts for each bin by the total number from all bins. Three
basic CCN sizes out of twenty are distinguished for the above mentioned
six supersaturations: at 2 μm, 3 μm and 5.5 μm. This procedure permits
to identify the rescaling factor, the overall number of particles, as
representative for the particular distributions and then to study its
behavior (when transformed as concentration) instead of the whole
distributions (one number instead of twenty). We have found for July
V. Kleshtanova et al.
Fig. 11. NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (1981–2010) in December. Geopotential mean at 700 hPa: (a) 1st -3rd, (b) 5th-7th, (c) 11th-13th and temperature anomaly at
700 hPa in these days respectively: (d), (e) and (f) (“NOAA”).
the following clear extrema: in 5th - 6th, taken as one synoptic situation,
and 13th (the maxima), and 18th (the minimum), while in December
there are three clear maxima on 2nd, 6th and 12th. These days are
investigated in detail by searching the impact of the geopotential height,
temperature and wind at 700 hPa, which correspond approximately to
the height of Mt. Moussala, on the CCN size distribution. It is found that
the maxima of CCN concentration in July corresponds to a Low Gradient
Pressure (LGP) (anticyclonic) type of the geopotential mean at 700 hPa,
while in December the Balkan Peninsula is influenced by a baric trough.
In order to find the roots of these correlations we studied further the
backward trajectories of the air masses calculated over the 72 h before
their arrival at Mt. Moussala by using the HYSPLIT model, developed by
NOAA (HYSPLIT). With respect to the time spent from the air masses
over the corresponding underlying surface two major types of backward
9
Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004
trajectories are identified, sea and continental, however the continental
air masses prevail in both months, respectively 30 days in July and 21
days in December.
Towards further division in subtypes, we match these findings with a
synoptic classification scheme of the weather patterns over the region of
Balkans, namely Atlantic, Continental, Mediterranean and LGP. Further
separation comes from the identification of three groups of backward
trajectories according to the height level where happens predominantly
the motion of the air masses – low level, middle level and high level. In
future we intend to consider again the whole size distributions of the
CCN in an attempt to distinguish further the influence of the meteoro­
logical elements on them, as well as their interplay with the backward
trajectories of the air masses.
V. Kleshtanova et al. Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 243 (2023) 106004

Fig. 12. Wind roses in July: (a) 5th and 6th, (b) 13th, (c) 18th and in December: (d) 2nd, (e) 6th and (f) 12th. Each circle counts the number of repetitions at a
given speed.

Author contributions Funding

Conceptualization and methodology, V. K., V.T. and A.S.; software, This research is supported by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education
V.K. and A.S.; validation, A.S.; formal analysis, V.K.; investigation, V.K.; and Science under the National Program “Young scientists and Post­
resources, Ch.A., V.T. and A.S.; writing—original draft preparation, V. doctoral Students”.
K.; writing—review and editing, V.T. and A.S.

10
V. Kleshtanova et al.
Institutional review board statement
Not applicable.
Informed consent statement
Not applicable.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgments
This work was initiated during Grant 80-10-192/April 27, 2020 from
the Science, Support Fund at Sofia University within the framework of
the Bulgarian NSF. VT acknowledges the Mercator Fellowship from the
German Research Foundation (DFG) at the Institute for Materials
Research and Testing (BAM), and the Glass Department at BAM for the
warm hospitality during his stay in Berlin.
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