Aerosol measurements at the South Pole

• Main Authors: A. Bodhaine, John J Deluisi, Joyce M. Harris, Geophysical Monitoringfor
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1986
• Subjects: Amundsen-Scott; Austral; South Pole; South pole
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.1030.5869; http://www.tellusb.net/index.php/tellusb/article/download/15131/16949/

The Geophysical Monitoring for Climatic Change (GMCC) program of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) operates an atmospheric monitoring observatory at Amundsen-Scott Station, South Pole. Long-term measurements of carbon dioxide, ozone, aerosols, and other background pollutants are obtained to understand their possible effects on the earth's climate. The aerosol measurement program consists of the continuous measure-ment of condensation nuclei (CN) concentration and aerosol scattering extinction coefficient During 1982, Nuclepore-filter aerosol samples were taken for subsequent analysis by the proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) technique with 8-h time resolution. A time series of sodium, chlorine, and sulfur concentrations shows that the sulfur and C N records are similar and that the sodium, chlorine, and urp records are similar. Large episodes of sodium are measured at the ground in the austral winter and are apparently caused by large-scale transport from coastal regions and vertical transport to the surface during times of surface warming and weakening of the surface temperature inversion. These episodes are characterized by increases in sodium concentration, Cl/Na ratio, u, ~. and particle size, and