Preliminary studies of aerosol composition in coastal areas

Abstract

The wind speed and turbulence in the atmospheric surface layer are key parameters in the air-sea exchange processes. The turbulent structure of the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) is very much influenced by the state of the sea (Panin and Krivickij, 1992). The aerosol composition in the MABL is influenced by air-sea gas exchange and subsequent atmospheric gas-gas and particle-gas reactions, sea spray and long range transported particles (Hasse et al., 1983; Quinn et al., 2001). The mixing and vertical transport of the particles will be influenced by the turbulent structure of the atmosphere in addition to aerosol dynamics and chemistry. The sea-salt particles are a significant fraction of the sub-100 nm particles in the MABL but quantification of the sea-salt flux is difficult, and estimates vary by an order of magnitude. The main goal of the studies was to recognize the patterns in the ion transfer over the coastal zone, which can be useful when determining the onshore transfer fluxes of pollutants.The data collected indicated that anthropogenic pollution was dominant among all sources. At onshore winds these ratios were similar to the ratios of seawater. The major ions in aerosols were probably formed by sea spray or air bubbling. Key words: Marine aerosol, particle concentration, chemical composition, coastal area, lidar.