Measurements of soot aerosol content in the near-water atmospheric layer in the southern and northern hemispheres

Abstract

We present the results of mass soot concentration measurements in the near-water layer of the atmosphere during two cruises of the “Academic Fedorov” research vessel (from September 25 to October 23, 1998, on a route from St. Petersburg to Franz Joseph Land and from November 8, 1999, to April 30, 2000, on a route from St. Petersburg to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean [I’m not sure this exists.]), the 27th cruise of the “Academician Ioffe” research vessel (from April 6 to May 19, 2009, from Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego) to Gdansk (Poland)), and at the Russian Antarctic Bellingshausen station (from December 20, 2001, to March 11, 2002). It is shown that the soot content in the atmosphere above the Arctic Ocean in October 1998 is comparable to that obtained at stationary stations in 1989–1992. The latitudinal dependence (less soot content with increases in latitude) is observed in the Southern Hemisphere. The average concentration of soot at Bellingshausen station and in the Southern Ocean is 19–28 ng/m3 and is comparable with the level of pollution at the foreign McMurdo and Ferraz stations.