Abstract

This report focuses on studying generation and/or evolution of sea-salt aerosols (SSA) on basis of measurements in the Northwest Pacific Ocean (NWPO), the marginal seas of China, at sea-beach sites and a semi-urban coastal site in 2012–2015. From measurements in the NWPO, we obtained the smallest generation function of the super-micron SSA mass ([MSSA]) by the local wind comparing to those previously reported. Vessel-caused wave-breaking was found to greatly enhance generation of SSA and increase [MSSA], which was subject to non-natural generation of SSA. However, naturally enhanced generation of SSA was indeed observed in the marginal seas and at the sea-beach site. The two enhancement mechanisms may explain the difference among this and previous studies. Size distributions of super-micron SSA exhibited two modes, i.e., 1–2 μm mode and ~5 μm mode. The 1–2 μm mode of SSA was enhanced more and comparable to the ~5 μm mode under the wind speed >7 m/s. However, the smaller mode SSA was largely reduced from open oceans to sea-beach sites with reducing wind speed. The two super-micron modes were comparable again at a semi-urban coastal site, suggesting that the smaller super-micron mode SSA may play more important roles in atmospheres.

Highlights

  • The mass concentration of sea-salt aerosols (SSA) (MSSA) measured in open oceans was reported to depend mainly on the local surface wind stress[25]

  • We focus on the analysis of mass concentration of SSA (MSSA) in super-micron particles afterwards

  • It was obvious that the super-micron SSA can be classified into two categories with different responses to the measured wind speed

Read more

Summary

Marine and Coastal Atmospheres

This report focuses on studying generation and/or evolution of sea-salt aerosols (SSA) on basis of measurements in the Northwest Pacific Ocean (NWPO), the marginal seas of China, at sea-beach sites and a semi-urban coastal site in 2012–2015. From measurements in the NWPO, we obtained the smallest generation function of the super-micron SSA mass ([MSSA]) by the local wind comparing to those previously reported. The mass concentration of SSA (MSSA) measured in open oceans was reported to depend mainly on the local surface wind stress[25]. We launched several field campaigns to measure mass or volume size distributions of SSA in the Northwest Pacific Ocean (NWPO), the Yellow Sea (YS) and the Bohai Sea (BS), at sea-beach sites, and a semi-urban coastal site of Qingdao during different periods in 2012–2015 (Details can be found in Methods section).

Results and Discussion
Methods
Author Contributions
Additional Information

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.