Balloon-borne observation of Aitken nuclei in the Antarctic stratosphere and troposphere

• Main Authors: Tomoyuki Ito, Miwako Ikegami, Izuo Kanazawa, Yasunobu Iwasaka, Akira Ono
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Meteorological Research Institute/Meteorological Research Institute/Meteorological Research Institute/Water Research Institute, Nagoya University/Water Research Institute, Nagoya University 1985
• Subjects: Aitken; Antarctic; Syowa Station; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; E. Antarctica; Memoirs of National Institute of Polar Research; Polar Research
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=1825; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00001825/; https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_action_common_download&item_id=1825&item_no=1&attribute_id=18&file_no=1

The aerosol soundings were carried out at Syowa Station (69°00'S, 39°35'E), Antarctica in October 1983. The vertical distribution of concentrations of Aitken nuclei (particles larger than 0.002 μm in radii) up to 15km in height was obtained at 1600 LT October 17 by use of the sonde which comprises an adiabatic expansion fog chamber with a photo-electric detector. The main results are summarized as follows : The mixing ratio of Aitken nuclei higher than 1000/mg is observed around 750,600,300 and above 200mb, whereas the surface value is a few hundreds/mg. The maximum mixing ratio is seen in the stratosphere just above the tropopause. The tropospheric high-concentration layer seems to exist commonly over Antarctica, whereas the high concentration in the stratosphere is peculiar to the present sounding. The high concentration in the troposphere may give an evidence for the possible production of new particles through the photochemical gas-to-particle conversion process in the antarctic troposphere. The high concentration in the stratosphere, which may be partly attributed to the effect of eruption of El Chichon, may give an evidence for the possible occurrence of evaporation and recondensation of aerosol particles in the antarctic lower stratosphere.