Study of formation of coarse particle nitrate aerosol
The results of analyses of six atmospheric aerosol samples collected in Helsinki, Finland, using a Berner low-pressure impactor, are reported. Formation of coarse particle nitrate was studied by evaluating various ion balances of the measured water-soluble ions (NH 4 +, Na +, K +, Mg 2+, Ca 2+, Cl −...
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Published in | Atmospheric environment (1994) Vol. 30; no. 14; pp. 2475 - 2482 |
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Main Author | |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Oxford
Elsevier Ltd
1996
Elsevier Science |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The results of analyses of six atmospheric aerosol samples collected in Helsinki, Finland, using a Berner low-pressure impactor, are reported. Formation of coarse particle nitrate was studied by evaluating various ion balances of the measured water-soluble ions (NH
4
+, Na
+, K
+, Mg
2+, Ca
2+, Cl
−, NO
3
− and SO
4
2−) and mass size distributions of Na
+ Ca
2+, Cl
− and NO
−
3. Atmospheric coarse particle NO
−
3 was found to be formed in the reaction of nitric acid with sea- and soil-derived coarse particles. The fraction of nitrate found on sea and soil particles followed the measured concentrations and size distributions of these two particle types: the concentration ratio of soil to sea particles increased with increasing particle size as did the fraction of nitrate on soil particles. The reaction with sea-salt particles resulted in the evaporation of Cl
− as HCI. The presence of non-sea-salt SO
4
2− indicates that also H
2SO
4 and/or SO
2 reacted with sea salt and contributed to the Cl
− loss. Overall, the percentage of evaporated Cl
− decreased with increasing particle size, which suggests a surface reaction mechanism. Cl
− evaporation was almost complete for the 1–2 um diameter size fraction indicating that all major sea-derived chlorides, NaCl, MgCl
2, CaCl
2 and KCI, may react with acidic species in the atmosphere. The results showed further some indications of possible reaction of HCI with soil particles. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 1352-2310 1873-2844 |
DOI: | 10.1016/1352-2310(95)00492-0 |