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Title: Water soluble organic constituents in Arctic aerosols and snow pack

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/92GL02918· OSTI ID:6919792
 [1];  [2]
  1. Atmospheric Environment Service, Downsview, Ontario (Canada)
  2. Florida State Univ., Tallahassee (United States)

Eight water-soluble organic anions were measured in 70 aerosol samples and 10 snow samples at Barrow, Alaska in March-April, 1989. The ranking of the ions in aerosols according to total (coarse + fine aerosol) median concentrations was acetate (44 ng m[sup [minus]3]), oxalate (27), benzoate (23), formate (22), propionate (6), methanesulfonate (5), lactate (4), and pyruvate (4). When added up, the median organic anion mass was 156 ng m[sup [minus]3]. The organic anions/nssSO[sub 4][sup =] mass ratio had a median of 0.18 and 0.07 in the coarse (>1 [mu]m) and fine (<1 [mu]m) size fractions, respectively, but can be very high on occasions. On average, the organic anions made up more than 10% of the water-soluble aerosol mass. A similar ranking in concentration was also found for the organic ions in the snow pack samples. The organic anion/nssSO[sub 4][sup =] mass ratio in these samples was >0.5, substantially higher than in aerosols. 18 refs., 2 tabs.

OSTI ID:
6919792
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States), Vol. 20:1; ISSN 0094-8276
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English