Abstract
It is often assumed that atmospheric observations at remote sites represent long-range transport of airborne material, and local influences are overlooked. We evaluated the impact of local input on the rainwater composition at Gosan Station, a strategic site for monitoring the continental outflow from Asia. We analyzed a 14-year record of rainwater chemical composition archived by the Korea Meteorological Administration and detected local terrestrial contribution for nitrate, sulfate and ammonium. We also measured the chemical composition of rainwater sampled simultaneously at multiple locations within the premises of the Gosan Station, from which local influence with meter-scale spatial heterogeneity could be discerned. We estimate that the local input accounted for at least ~10% of the wet deposition of nitrogen and ~12% of the wet deposition of sulfur during the 14 years. This highlights the significance of the local influence, which should be carefully assessed when interpreting atmospheric observations at this site.
Highlights
Atmospheric transport of anthropogenic and natural emissions is of great concern due to trans-national boundary air pollution and climate change at regional and global scales
The wind direction was divided into eight sectors of 45 each (I-VIII; Fig. 1), taking into consideration the positions of adjacent buildings and structures that can act as windbreaks
A remote site is often preferred for atmospheric observations, since influence from local surroundings is considered minimal
Summary
Atmospheric transport of anthropogenic and natural emissions is of great concern due to trans-national boundary air pollution and climate change at regional and global scales. Wind-driven production and transport of local aerosols produced rainwater composition that varied with sampling height at an urban site in India (Kulshrestha et al, 2005) and caused meter-scale spatial heterogeneity of rainwater composition at a coastal site in Ireland (Losno et al, 1998). These observations demonstrate the introduction of local aerosols by wind, their heterogeneous dispersion in the atmosphere and their spatially uneven deposition on the surface
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