Characteristic of organic aerosol in a remote area of Okinawa Island

A continuous investigation of aerosol pollutants in Cape Hedo, Japan was conducted from October 2005 to August 2006 by Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). This article focused on the analysis of long-range transport of organic aerosol from continental origin to the remote island. Based on the transport distance and air mass origin, four main air mass origins were considered, including North China, South China, Japan and Korea. Although the mass concentration and air mass origin were quite different during study period, the mass spectrum and size distribution of organic matter and oxidized organics were similar, which showed uni-modal distribution with modal diameter of around 500 nm. The loss rate of organics was (5.15 ± 0.55) × 10-6 s-1 obtained by plotting the concentration against the transport time. Conversion rate of SO2 to sulfate and oxidation rate of organics were (1.07 ± 0.15) × 10-5 and (1.09 ± 0.52) × 10-6s-1, respectively.