Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
8862786 | Atmospheric Pollution Research | 2017 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
The Arctic atmosphere has been disturbed by human activities. To improve the understanding of anthropogenic influences, major ionic species and carbonaceous components were measured at Ny-Ã
lesund in July 2012. The results suggested that Na+ and Clâ are the dominant water soluble inorganic species, accounting for 57 ± 17% of the mass of measured ionic species, and 61% of the variance in organic carbon can be explained by oceanic emissions. Aerosols in this area were found to be altered by secondary production involving oxides of sulfur, nitrogen and ammonia from anthropogenic activities, resulting in relative high concentrations of secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA) (such as non-sea salt (nss)-SO42â, NO3â and NH4+), with a mean concentration of 158 ng mâ3. SIAs were featured by a mean [NH4+]/[nss-SO42â] ratio of 0.57 and a neutralization ratio (NR) of 0.074, indicating a deficit of NH4+. Thus, the production of particulate NH4 NO3 was strongly limited and SIAs were likely to remain in more acidic forms, NH4HSO4 or H2SO4 rather than as (NH4)2SO4. Chloride depletion of 11%-22% occurred in the samples with high concentrations of excess acidic species (defined as [nss-SO42â + NO3â â NH4+]) and high sea salts. The formation of SIAs and chloride depletion appeared to produce acidic aerosols with a mean pH of 4.51 and high free [H] concentrations of 3.06 ± 0.75 nmol mâ3 in aerosols, accounting for 77% of the total [H] concentration. This implies that anthropogenic species could be engaged efficiently in modifying of the properties of aerosols at Ny-Ã
lesund.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Earth and Planetary Sciences
Atmospheric Science
Authors
Jianqiong Zhan, Wei Li, Liqi Chen, Qi Lin, Yuan Gao,