A comprehensive global dataset of atmospheric 7 Be and 210 Pb measurements: air concentration and depositional flux

Abstract

Abstract. 7Be and 210Pb air concentration and depositional flux data provide key information on the origins and movements of air masses, as well as deposition processes and residence time of aerosols. After their deposition onto the Earth's surface, they are utilized for tracing soil redistribution processes on land and particle dynamics and mixing processes in the ocean. Here we present a global dataset of air concentration and depositional flux measurements of atmospheric 7Be and 210Pb made by a large number of researchers and laboratories. Data were collected from published papers between 1955 and early 2020. It includes the annual surface air concentrations data of 7Be from 367 sites and of 210Pb from 270 sites, the annual depositional flux of 7Be from 279 sites, and of 210Pb from 602 sites. When available, appropriate metadata have also been summarized, including geographic location, sampling date, methodology, annual precipitation, and references. The dataset is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4521649 (Zhang et al., 2021). The purpose of this paper is to have the published data available in one place for future researchers' public consumption in their research and provide an overview of the scope and nature of this dataset holdings.