Trace elements and individual particle analysis of atmospheric aerosols from the Antarctic peninsula

• Published in: Tellus B
• Main Authors: Artaxo, P, Rabello, M, Maenhaut, Willy, Van Grieken, R
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 1992
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Sciences; Chemistry; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Ferraz; King George Island; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/231701; http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-231701; https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0889.1992.00010.x

Atmospheric aerosols were sampled continuously since December 1985 at the Brazilian Antarctic Station "Comandante Ferraz', (62-degrees-05'S; 58-degrees-23.5'W) on the King George island, Antarctic Peninsula. Stacked Filter Units (SFU) were used to collect fine (d(p) < 2.0-mu-m) and coarse (2.0-mu-m < d(p) < 15-mu-m) particles on Nuclepore filters. The concentration of elements with Z > 10 was measured by particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis. This yielded data for the concentration of 23 elements: Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Se, Br, Rb, Sr, Zr and Pb. The fine and coarse aerosol mass concentration was determined by gravimetric analysis. Absolute principal factor analysis (APFA) was used to obtain the aerosol elemental source profiles. Non-sea-salt sulfate showed a clear seasonal pattern, with minimum during wintertime. For summer and wintertime coarse particles, only two factors were significant, with the first having high loadings for Na, Mg, Cl, S, Sr, K, Ca, and the coarse particle mass concentration (representing sea-salt aerosol). The second factor had high loadings for Al, Si, Fe, Ti, and Ca (soil dust aerosol). For the fine mode particles three factors were differentiated, and they represented sea-salt aerosol, soil dust and sulfates. The sea-salt source profile agreed with the average sea-water elemental composition to within 20 % for the elements Na, Mg, S, Cl, K, Ca and Br. The source apportionment for the coarse particle mass concentration (CPM) revealed that 86 to 89 % of the CPM is accounted for by the sea-salt aerosol component, and 3.2 to 6.8 % by soil dust and that 7.6 to 8.1 % of the CPM could not be apportioned. For the fine particle mass concentration (FPM), sea-salt aerosol accounted for 60%, sulfates for 24 to 31 %, soil dust for only 0.5 to 1.3 %. The concentration of some trace elements like Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb appeared too high, maybe due to long range transport of polluted air masses, or regional air pollution sources in the ...