Modeled trends and climatological variability of the net transboundary mass flux of airborne sulfur between the United States and Canada. [ASTRAP]

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:5722488

Shannon, J D; Lesht, B M

If the mass budget of anthropogenic sulfur oxides over a large source region is examined in a broad perspective, there are three possible pollutant fates. The sulfur can be deposited within the region by wet processes, deposited by dry processes, or exported from the region. Only wet deposition is monitored on a scale sufficient to make estimates of the integrated deposition across a region. Dry deposition is measured only at a few research sites and is not directly monitored on regional scales, while net mass export has been measured only on a fragmentary basis (Galloway et al., 1984). Thus, we must depend primarily upon simulation models for our estimates of integrated dry deposition and long-term net mass export. In this paper we use a simulation model to examine the net mass flux of pollutant sulfur from both the United States and Canada, with particular emphasis on transport across their common border. We estimate its seasonal and annual variability for the period 1976 to 1981, and compare the contribution from emission changes with the contribution from year-to-year changes in climatology in producing that variability. Estimates of the horizontal net mass fluxes of sulfur oxides are useful for (1) testing the internal consistency of simulation models of atmospheric pollutant transport and deposition; (2) indirect estimation of integrated dry deposition totals as the residual when integrated wet deposition and net export are subtracted from total emissions; and (3) evaluation of the importance of the total emissions within a region compared to the net influx from outside sources.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 5722488
• Report Number(s): CONF-8603107-1; ON: DE86009188
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
A CODES
ACID RAIN
AIR POLLUTION
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CANADA
CHALCOGENIDES
COMPUTER CODES
DEPOSITION
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT
MASS TRANSFER
MONITORING
NAPAP
NORTH AMERICA
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POLLUTION
RAIN
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR DIOXIDE
SULFUR OXIDES
TRANSFRONTIER POLLUTION
USA