Beryllium-7 concentrations in snow, ice, seawater, and aerosols during the MOSAiC expedition
Atmospheric transport and deposition of aerosols is an important delivery mechanism of natural and contaminant trace elements (TEs) to the Arctic, but direct measurements of TE fluxes are difficult and unreliable. The naturally occurring isotope Beryllium-7 (Be-7) can be used as a tracer of aerosol...
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| Format: | Dataset |
| Language: | English |
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PANGAEA
2022
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| Online Access: | https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.945414 https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.945414 |
| Summary: | Atmospheric transport and deposition of aerosols is an important delivery mechanism of natural and contaminant trace elements (TEs) to the Arctic, but direct measurements of TE fluxes are difficult and unreliable. The naturally occurring isotope Beryllium-7 (Be-7) can be used as a tracer of aerosol deposition and to provide reliable seasonal TE flux estimates. Be-7 is a cosmic ray produced isotope (half life 53.3 days) that is deposited upon the ocean surface primarily by precipitation. The standing crop (inventory) of Be-7 in the surface ocean (including snow and ice) affords a way to determine the deposition flux of this isotope. At steady state, the input flux of Be-7 is balanced by the decay rate of the Be-7 inventory integrated over the water column, sea ice and snow. The ability to readily derive Be-7 fluxes from ocean/ice/snow inventories provides a means to link the chemical concentrations of trace elements in aerosols to their respective atmospheric deposition fluxes through the following relationship: Flux(TEs) = Flux(Be-7) * [TEs] / [Be-7]. where [TEs] and [Be-7] are the aerosol concentrations of trace elements and Be-7, respectively. In these datasets, we present concentrations of Be-7 in surface ocean water, ice cores, snow, frost flower, and aerosol samples collected during the MOSAiC expedition in the Central Arctic Ocean from October 2019 to May 2020. |
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