Role of the oceans in the atmospheric cycle of carbonyl sulfide

Thesis/Dissertation · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5622430

Johnson, J E

Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) is both the dominant sulfur gas in the remote troposphere and, along with volcanoes, a major source of sulfur for the stratospheric sulfate layer. Prior to this work the ocean was regarded as a major sink for atmospheric OCS. The purpose of this study has been to assess the magnitude of the global air-sea flux of OCS. The author designed an analytical system which was centered around a Varian-3700 gas chromatograph with a flame-photometric detector. To increase the sensitivity of the detector, the hydrogen gas for the flame was doped with sulfur hexafluoride. Air samples were concentrated in a liquid nitrogen cooled freeze-out loop, then injected into the gas chromatograph. Water samples purged with sulfur-free zero-air which was analyzed similarly. He also built a permeation tube system for chemical standardization. This equipment was taken on two oceanographic cruises on the Pacific Ocean, one in the spring of 1983 and a second in the spring of 1983. Both of these cruises included measurements of air and seawater concentrations of OCS from the equator to the Aleutian Islands. The Henry's law constant of solubility for OCS was measured in the laboratory for filtered and boiled seawater at three temperatures.

• Research Organization: Washington Univ., Seattle (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5622430
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
520200 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AIR POLLUTION
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON OXYSULFIDE
CHROMATOGRAPHY
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY
GLOBAL ASPECTS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MONITORING
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PACIFIC OCEAN
POLLUTION
SEAS
SEAWATER
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SINKS
SOLUBILITY
STRATOSPHERE
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SURFACE WATERS
TROPOSPHERE
WATER
WATER POLLUTION