Large-scale transport of pollution aerosol over the east coast of Asia

Journal Article · Fri Nov 20 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/92GL02639· OSTI ID:6919457

Uematsu, Mitsuo; Sugita, Takafumi ^[1]; Anikiev, V V; Medvedev, A N ^[2]

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1. Hokkaido Tokai Univ., Sapporo (Japan)
2. Pacific Oceanological Inst., Vladivostok (Russian Federation)

Eastern Asia contains many large pollution sources whose emissions can be transported over large areas of North Pacific. In order to characterize this transport, the authors collected a sixty-day series of daily aerosol samples concurrently from Sapporo, Japan and Vladivostok, CIS from April to May, 1991. These were analyzed for non-sea-salt (nss) sulfate and nitrate. The arithmetic mean concentrations of nss-sulfate (4.66 [plus minus] 2.68 [mu]g m[sup [minus]3]) and nitrate (2.58 [plus minus] 1.62 [mu]g m[sup [minus]3]) in Vladivostok were 70% and 40% higher than the corresponding concentrations of nss-sulfate (2.69 [plus minus] 2.06 [mu]g m[sup [minus]3]) and nitrate (1.86 [plus minus] 1.42 [mu]g m[sup [minus]3]) in Sapporo. Several episodic peaks of nss-sulfate and nitrate in Vladivostok corresponded to the peaks observed in Sapporo, which is located approximately 700 km east of Vladivostok. About 40% and 25% of the variance in the nss-sulfate and nitrate concentrations at the two sites could be explained by the large-scale transport of substances under the strong winds from the west and southwest. This suggests that the high concentrations are associated with strong regional sources located to windward of these cities and that the concentrations that the authors measured are probably representative of a large area of the coastal western North Pacific Ocean. 13 refs., 3 figs., 1 tab.

• OSTI ID: 6919457
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States), Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States) Vol. 19:22; ISSN GPRLAJ; ISSN 0094-8276
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AEROSOLS
AIR POLLUTION
ASIA
COLLOIDS
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
DISPERSIONS
ENVIRONMENTAL TRANSPORT
JAPAN
MASS TRANSFER
MONITORING
NITRATES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PACIFIC OCEAN
POLLUTANTS
POLLUTION
POLLUTION SOURCES
SEAS
SOLS
SULFATES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SURFACE WATERS
TRANSFRONTIER POLLUTION