AN ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF THE EARTH SCIENCES Published by AGU and the Geochemical Society
[1] Abstract: The loading of tropospheric aerosols is highly variable spatially and temporally as a consequence of large spatial variability in sources, temporal variability in transport winds, and short residence times �days), and additionally for secondary sulfate, intermittent production associat...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
1987
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.66.847 http://www.ecd.bnl.gov/steve/pubs/dynamical.pdf |
| Summary: | [1] Abstract: The loading of tropospheric aerosols is highly variable spatially and temporally as a consequence of large spatial variability in sources, temporal variability in transport winds, and short residence times �days), and additionally for secondary sulfate, intermittent production associated with aqueous-phase reaction in clouds, and intermittent removal, mainly by precipitation. We have used a chemical transport and transformation model for atmospheric sulfur driven by observationally derived meteorological data to calculate the geographical distribution of sulfate and sulfur dioxide �SO2) over North America, the North Atlantic, and Europe as a function of time for April 1987. We present the results of these calculations, mainly as animations showing the time dependence of the column burden �vertical integral of concentration) and of sulfate wet deposition, and interpret the temporal evolution in terms of the controlling meteorological phenomena as discerned from synoptic analyzes at 925 and 500 hPa. The analyzes show highly localized and episodic buildup and removal of sulfate and SO2 and circulations under the influence of high- and low-pressure systems as well as instances of rapid meridional and zonal transport over distances of thousands of kilometers. Key meteorological phenomena giving rise to large amounts of sulfate include not only slow moving high-pressure systems, as previously recognized, but also low-pressure systems. Whether or not a given low-pressure system |
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