This paper covers measurements of the number-size distribution of aerosol particles, particulate absorption at 570 nm wavelength and CO as tracer gas from 2006 through 2009 at 50 and 300 m on the ZOTTO tower, Siberia at 60.8° N; 89.35° E. Average number, surface and volume concentrations are similar to results given for continental and boreal background locations. When fitted with lognormal functions, the probability distribution function of modal diameters shows three main maxima in the Aitken and accumulation size range and a possible secondary maximum in the nucleation size range below 25 nm. The seasonal distributions of the different particle parameters differ substantially. Particulate absorption has a clear single maximum in high winter and minimum values in mid-summer. The 90%-percentile, however, indicates a possible secondary maximum in July/August that may be related to forest fires. The strongly combustion derived CO shows a single winter maximum and a late summer minimum, albeit with a considerable smaller seasonal swing than the particle data due to its longer atmospheric lifetime. Total volume and even more so total number show a more complex seasonal variation with maxima in winter, spring, and summer. A cluster analysis of back trajectories complemented by local stability information yielded ten clusters with three levels of particle concentration: Low concentrations for the northernmost (Arctic) clusters mid-level concentrations for clusters reaching rapidly west between 55° and 65° latitude, and high concentrations for the cluster reaching southwest via Kazakhstan to the central Russian industrial region.