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 atmospheric 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, particle dynamics in aquatic systems, and mixing processes in open 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 global research communities. Data were collected from published papers between 1955 and early 2020. It includes the annual surface air concentration data of 7Be from 367 sites and 210Pb from 270 sites, the annual depositional flux data of 7Be from 279 sites and 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 archived at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4785136 (Zhang et al., 2021) and is freely available for the scientific community. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the scope and nature of this dataset and its potential utility as baseline data for future research.
Highlights
Occurring beryllium-7 (7Be, T1/2: 53.3 d) and lead210 (210Pb, T1/2: 22.3 years) have been widely utilized as tracers to investigate Earth’s surface and atmospheric processes (Huh et al, 2006; Du et al, 2012). 7Be, a cosmogenic radionuclide, is produced by the spallation of oxygen and nitrogen nuclei by cosmic rays in the stratosphere and upper troposphere (Lal et al, 1958)
From 456 references (Appendix A), we have compiled a comprehensive dataset of atmospheric 7Be and 210Pb measurements made by numerous laboratories
This paper summarizes the global dataset of 7Be and 210Pb for their concentration in atmospheric air and their depositional fluxes from 456 publications spanning the period from 1955 to early 2020
Summary
Occurring beryllium-7 (7Be, T1/2: 53.3 d) and lead210 (210Pb, T1/2: 22.3 years) have been widely utilized as tracers to investigate Earth’s surface and atmospheric processes (Huh et al, 2006; Du et al, 2012). 7Be, a cosmogenic radionuclide, is produced by the spallation of oxygen and nitrogen nuclei by cosmic rays in the stratosphere and upper troposphere (Lal et al, 1958). The production rate of 7Be has negligible dependence on longitude or season but depends on the altitude, latitude, and the ∼ 11-year solar cycle (Koch et al, 1996; Liu et al, 2001; Su et al, 2003). A major fraction of 7Be (67 %) production takes place in the stratosphere, but it does not readily reach the troposphere, except during spring when seasonal thinning of the tropopause folds near the jet stream occurs at midlatitudes (Lal and Peters, 1967; Danielsen, 1968). The global 222Rn flux from continents ranged from 1300 to 1800 Bq m−2 d−1, while 2–21 Bq m−2 d−1 was reported for oceanic areas
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