Monitoring of atmospheric aerosol particles on the Antarctic Peninsula

Abstract

Atmospheric aerosol particles have been sampled since 1985 at the Brazilian Antarctic station, Comandante Ferraz (62°05' S, 58°23.5'W). Stacked filter units were used to collect particles with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 10 μm. The elemental concentration was measured by particle-induced X-ray emission, yielding data for 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 detection limit was typically near 5 ng m-3 for elements with atomic number (Z) less than 20, and 0.1 ng m-3 for 21 < Z < 30. Principal-factor and cluster analyses identified four sources for the Antarctic aerosol: fine and coarse sea salt, soil dust and sulphates. The fine-mode non-sea-salt sulphate concentration showed a clear seasonal pattern accompanying the biological cycle of algae, with minimum during winter. Some elements, such as Ni and Pb, showed very high enriched concentrations relative to the bulk sea-water composition. This indicates the existence of sources of regional or long-range transported pollution.