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Water soluble organic constituents in Arctic aerosols and snow pack
Author(s) -
Li ShaoMeng,
Winchester John W.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/92gl02918
Subject(s) - aerosol , oxalate , snow , environmental chemistry , formate , propionate , chemistry , total organic carbon , sulfate , organic matter , organic acid , geology , inorganic chemistry , organic chemistry , geomorphology , catalysis
Eight water‐soluble organic anions were measured in 70 aerosol samples and 10 snow samples at Barrow, Alaska in March–April, 1989. The ranking of the ions in aerosols according to total (coarse+fine aerosol) median concentrations was acetate (44 ng m −3 ), oxalate (27), benzoate (23), formate (22), propionate (6), methanesulfonate (5), lactate (4), and pyruvate (4). When added up, the median organic anion mass was 156 ng m −3 . The organic anions/nssSO 4 = mass ratio had a median of 0.18 and 0.07 in the coarse (>1 μm) and fine (<1 μm) size fractions, respectively, but can be very high on occasions. On average, the organic anions made up more than 10% of the water‐soluble aerosol mass. A similar ranking in concentration was also found for the organic ions in the snow pack samples. The organic anion/nssSO 4 = mass ratio in these samples was >0.5, substantially higher than in aerosols.