Variations in the depositional fluxes of cosmogenic beryllium on short time scales

• Published in: Atmospheric Environment
• Main Authors: Mann, M., Beer, J., Steinhilber, F., Abreu, J.A., Christl, M., Kubik, P.W.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2011
• Subjects: cosmogenic radionuclides; aerosols; beryllium; principal component analysis; Greenland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2011.03.005

We examined the concentrations and fluxes of 7 Be and 10 Be at three different sites, Greenland snow pit Dye3, Jungfraujoch and Dübendorf (both Switzerland, high and low altitude sites). The fluxes of both beryllium isotopes and the fluxes of SO 4 , NO 3 , NH 4 and Ca were used to perform a principal component analysis (PCA) to find common variances in the deposition signal. At all three sites we find the same first principal component and similar patterns in deposition signals. At Dübendorf 90% of the 7 Be and 80% of the 10 Be variance in the depostion signal can be explained by the variance of SO 4 , NO 3 , NH 4 and Ca, grouped into 2 components. At Jungfraujoch only 40% of the 7 Be and 65% of the 10 Be variance in the depostion signal can be explained by the same constituents. Furthermore, the different place of origin of deposited 7 Be and 10 Be can be found in the variance signals. A preferred attachment of cosmogenic berylium to SO 4 could not be found.