Aerosols and their sources at Summit Greenland – First results of continuous size- and time-resolved sampling

An ongoing program to continuously collect time- and size-resolved aerosol samples from ambient air at Summit Station, Greenland (72.6 N, 38.5 W) is building a long-term data base to both record individual transport events and provide long-term temporal context for past and future intensive studies at the site. As a “first look” at this data set, analysis of samples collected from summer 2005 to spring 2006 demonstrates the utility of continuous sampling to characterize air masses over the ice pack, document individual aerosol transport events, and develop a long-term record. Seven source-related aerosol types were identified in this analysis: Asian dust, Saharan dust, industrial combustion, marine with combustion tracers, fresh coarse volcanic tephra, and aged volcanic plume with fine tephra and sulfate, and the well-mixed background “Arctic haze”. The Saharan dust is a new discovery; the other types are consistent with those reported from previous work using snow pits and intermittent ambient air sampling during intensive study campaigns. Continuous sampling complements the fundamental characterization of Greenland aerosols developed in intensive field programs by providing a year-round record of aerosol size and composition at all temporal scales relevant to ice core analysis, ranging from individual deposition events and seasonal cycles, to a record of inter-annual variability of aerosols from both natural and anthropogenic sources.

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► Continuous size-resolved aerosol sampling (8-stages, 90 nm to 10 μm) at Summit, Greenland.
► Seven aerosol types: Asian dust, Saharan dust, industrial combustion, marine with ships, fresh and aged volcanic plumes, and “Arctic haze”.
► Continued sampling for multiple years is building a data set that can provide unique insights into aerosol–ice relationships.