Abstract
Abstract. This paper presents first results of a comprehensive emission inventory of chemical species from anthropogenic activities (power generation, vehicles, ships and aircraft) in Antarctica, covering the 2004–2005 period. The inventory is based on estimated emission rates of fuel consumption provided by some of the Antarctic research stations. Since the emission sources have different modes of operation and use a variety of fuel, the emission flux rate of chemical species is calculated by multiplying the fuel consumption value with the density of fuel and appropriate emission factors. A separate inventory is prepared for each anthropogenic emission source in Antarctica. Depending on the type of operation, emission rates of SO2, and BC (Black Carbon, from shipping only) have been calculated using the above technique. However, only results of SO2 emissions from each source are presented here. Emission inventory maps of SO2 depicting the track/path taken by each mobile source are shown. The total annual SO2 is 158 Mg from power generation and vehicle operations, 3873 Mg from ships and 56 Mg from aircraft for 2004–2005 and these values undergo strong seasonality following the human activity in Antarctica. Though these figures are small when compared to the emissions at most other regions of the world, they are an indication that human presence in Antarctica leads to at least local pollution. The sources are mainly line and point sources and thus the local pollution potentially is relatively strong.
Highlights
The climate system of Antarctica is very unique and extreme compared to any other region, making it one of the most pristine (Wall, 2005) places on Earth
Due to the growth of human activity and visits to Antarctica (IAATO, Overview of Antarctic Tourism, 2003–2004), it is necessary to elucidate the contribution of different emission sources towards concentration levels of chemical species
To obtain the actual flux rate of the required chemical species, the fuel consumption per month is multiplied with fuel density and appropriate emission factors as in Eq (1) for all the 9 research bases
Summary
The climate system of Antarctica is very unique and extreme compared to any other region, making it one of the most pristine (Wall, 2005) places on Earth. Due to the growth of human activity and visits to Antarctica (IAATO, Overview of Antarctic Tourism, 2003–2004), it is necessary to elucidate the contribution of different emission sources towards concentration levels of chemical species. The present research suggests a technique for designing emission inventories for anthropogenic activities in Antarctica using certain logical assumptions. These emission data will in the future be included in a regional climate chemistry model, REMOTE (Regional Model with Tracer Extension) (Langmann, 2000), used widely in Europe and beyond to investigate atmospheric composition, transport and surface deposition. The data are stored on a 50 km×50 km grid and will later be used as input for a regional climate chemistry model, REMOTE to calculate atmospheric concentrations and deposition rates
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