Arctic Haze and the Effects of Anthropogenic Factor in the North Atlantic Atmosphere

• Main Author: Lacey, William J.
• Other Authors: LACEYW
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: Scholarly Commons 2018
• Subjects: Arctic; Climate change; glacier; Iceland; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://commons.erau.edu/discovery-day/db-discovery-day-2018/poster-session/58; https://commons.erau.edu/context/discovery-day/article/1304/viewcontent/W_Lacey.pdf

Arctic haze is a anthropogenic effect in which particles from industry, commonly SO_4, is trapped in the atmosphere and has the tendency to gather at the poles. During this experiment five samples of precipitation were taken from various locations all in the North of Iceland. Samples were take at different longitudes to account for wind patterns and natural obstacles as well as to test the effects of atmospheric pollutants across the country East to West. To test if pollutants were present, the pH of all the samples was measured and compared to both distilled water with a pH of 7, and glacier ice samples. The purpose of testing pH is to try to detect compounds that have the tendency to be acidic. The samples were gathered in mid-March, during the typical peak season for arctic haze (Shen). The purpose for measuring the effects of arctic haze is that it can give us an idea on the status of the health of our atmosphere, and the effects that industry is having on climate change as well as the effect of industry on environments thousands of miles away from factories.