Coastal Antarctic aerosol: the seasonal pattern of its chemical composition and radionuclide content

Dietmar Wagenbach; Ursula Görlach; Klaus Moser; Karl Otto Münnich

doi:10.3402/tellusb.v40i5.16010

Coastal Antarctic aerosol: the seasonal pattern of its chemical composition and radionuclide content

Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology

Volume 40 (1988): Issue 5

By: Dietmar Wagenbach, Ursula Görlach, Klaus Moser and Karl Otto Münnich

Open Access

|Jan 1988

Abstract

At the German Antarctic research station (70°S, 8°W), long-term observations of the chemical and radio-chemical composition of atmospheric particulate matter were started in spring 1983. Based on the analysis of high-volume aerosol filters sampled continuously for nearly 5 years, concentration records of the following aerosol components are presented here : (a) major ions (sea-salt, sulfate, nitrate); (b) cosmogenic ⁷Be and terrigeneous ²¹⁰Pb; (c) trace elements (crustal Mn, heavy metal Pb). All species mentioned, with the exception of stable and radioactive Pb, show annual cycles. The maximum occurs in austral summer for ⁷Be, sulfate, and crustal Mn. For sea-salt, however, the maximum is found in local autumn, and for nitrate in local spring. In local summer, the enhanced 7Be to ²¹⁰Pb ratio is attributed to intenser large scale vertical mixing. The pattern of total sulfate seems to be controlled by the nss-sulfate production from marine organo-sulfur species during local summer, whereas in polar night, nss-sulfate shows very low or even negative concentration. Crustal aerosol (indicated by Mn) shows a mean summer contribution of 16 ng/SCM which exceeds the mean winter level by more than a factor of two. Based on a mean wash-out ratio of 0.27.10⁶ observed for 210Pb bearing aerosol particles, a Pb snow concentration of 3.0 pg/g is deduced from the mean air concentration of 11 pg/SCM.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3402/tellusb.v40i5.16010 | Journal eISSN: 1600-0889

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Language: English

Page range: 426 - 436

Submitted on: Nov 29, 1987

Accepted on: May 6, 1988

Published on: Jan 1, 1988

Published by: Stockholm University Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 1988 Dietmar Wagenbach, Ursula Görlach, Klaus Moser, Karl Otto Münnich, published by Stockholm University Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 40 (1988): Issue 5