Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Acetaldehyde in the Alaskan subarctic snowpack
Abstract. Acetaldehyde is a reactive intermediate in hydro-carbon oxidation. It is both emitted and taken up by snow-packs and photochemical and physical processes are proba-bly involved. Understanding the reactivity of acetaldehyde in snow and its processes of physical and chemical exchanges requir...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2010
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.592.8499 http://hal.inria.fr/docs/00/55/42/92/PDF/acp-10-919-2010.pdf |
| Summary: | Abstract. Acetaldehyde is a reactive intermediate in hydro-carbon oxidation. It is both emitted and taken up by snow-packs and photochemical and physical processes are proba-bly involved. Understanding the reactivity of acetaldehyde in snow and its processes of physical and chemical exchanges requires the knowledge of its incorporation mechanism in snow crystals. We have performed a season-long study of the evolution of acetaldehyde concentrations in the subarctic snowpack near Fairbanks (65 ◦ N), central Alaska, which is subjected to a vigorous metamorphism due to persistent el-evated temperature gradients in the snowpack, between 20 and 200 ◦ C m−1. The snowpack therefore almost entirely transforms into depth hoar. We have also analyzed acetalde-hyde in a manipulated snowpack where temperature gradi-ents were suppressed. Snow crystals there transformed much |
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