AAAR 32nd Annual Conference
September 30 - October 4, 2013
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
A Study on Submicrometer Particles and Biological Materials in Seawater and Their Contribution to Primary Marine Aerosol Formation
JIYEON PARK, Hyunji, Kim Kim, Seungyong Lee, Minsoo Kang, Hee-joo Cho, Seunghee Han, Kihong Park, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology
Abstract Number: 257 Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosols
Abstract Chemical constituents (organics, sulfate, nitrate, ammonium, chloride, and methanesulfonic acid) of non-refractory submicrometer particles in the ambient atmosphere were measured in real time using a quadruple aerosol mass spectrometer (QAMS) at a coastal site (Boseung, Korea) in the fall (10/29/2012–11/16/2012). Also, chemical constituents of sea spray particles aerosolized from seawater sampled from the coastal site were measured using the AMS, and biological materials (chlorophyll-a (<700 nm), bacteria (200-450 nm and 200 nm-1 µm), and virus (20-200 nm)) in seawater were determined by an UV spectrophotometer and epifluorescence microscopy method to investigate effects of biological materials on marine aerosol formation. The AMS mass spectra (m/z 30 and m/z 42 for amino acid, and m/z 60, m/z 61, and m/z 73 for carbohydrates) were used for determination of biological species in organic particles. The concentrations of chlorophyll-a (~2.25 µg/l) and bacteria (2.8x105 bacteria/ml) in seawater were the highest on 11/9/2012, and the biological fraction (the ratio of a sum of the biological markers in organic spectra to total organic spectra) in the submicrometer particles in the ambient atmosphere was also highest on that day (~41%), suggesting that the biological organic species in seawater significantly contributed to the formation of the marine aerosols. The biological fraction in the ambient particles decreased to ~11% with continental air mass. Further analyses for chemical constituents of bubble bursting particles from seawater and the amount of virus in seawater are in progress, and will be presented.