AAAR 31st Annual Conference
October 8-12, 2012
Hyatt Regency Minneapolis
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Source Identification and Long-term Trend Analysis of Finnish Arctic Aerosols
JAMES R. LAING, Philip K. Hopke, Liaquat Husain, Vincent A. Dutkiewicz, Jussi Paatero, Tanveer Ahmed, Clarkson University
Abstract Number: 201 Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosols
Abstract Arctic Haze has been a focus of study since the early 1970, but there are relatively few long-term datasets of their chemical composition. Week-long historical filter samples collected at Kevo, Finland from 1964-2010 have been analyzed for various chemical species. Major ions and methane sulfonate (MSA) have been analyzed by ion chromatography (IC), trace elements by inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and BC by light transmission. The 47-year complete data set will be analyzed by Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF). The receptor modeling results will be connected with back trajectory data in a Potential Source Contribution Function (PSCF) analysis to determine possible source areas. The combination of PMF and PSCF will identify source profiles and the geographic areas of those sources. Sources of wood smoke, oil and coal burning, non-ferrous metal smelting, biogenic sulfate, and crustal elements will be identified. Trend analysis on the sources produced by PMF will be performed to evaluate the evolution of sources over time. Global inventories of anthropogenic emissions indicate a dramatic decrease in the early 1990’s in the Soviet Union [Bond 2007; Smith 2011]. The Kevo site is heavily impacted by the Kola Peninsula industrial area. It is expected that elemental markers of industrial processes there will decrease starting in the early 1990s. Of particular interest are the factors for forest fires and biogenic sulfate. Siberian forest fires are a major source of Arctic BC during the spring/summer [Generoso 2007]. It has been predicted that climate change has increased forest fires in central Canada and Russia [Stocks 1998]. This prediction will be assessed and source areas of forest fires will be determined. Sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic have increased since 1970 [Thompson 2010]. Whether the biogenic sulfate factor is correlated with increased temperatures will be examined and source locations will be determined.