Eastward sulfur flux from the Northeastern United States

Menachem LuriA*, Charles C. Van Valin, William C. Keene, Dennis L. Wellman, James N. Galloway, Joe F. Boatman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

During January and February 1986 the concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate sulfate (SO42-) were measured from an instrumented aircraft 80-120 km east of the New England coast. The average concentration of SO2 in the boundary layer (BL) was 10 μg m-3; the maximum 30-min average was 26 μg m-3. The average and maximum values in the free troposphere (FT) were 3.9 and 31 μg m-3, respectively. The concentrations of non-sea-salt SO42- averaged 2.0 and 0.7 μg m-3 in the BL and FT, and the maximum concentrations were 7.7 and 3.2 μg m-3. Continuous wind speed records from the aircraft LORAN system were used to estimate altitude profiles of the offshore fluxes of SO2 and SO42- for the duration of the study. The estimated advection flux, is (3.5 ± 0.4) × 10-3 Tg(S)day-1 from the coastal segment between 41 and 43°N latitudes. Most (89%) of the S flux was found to be in the form of SO2; the remainder corresponded to particulate SO42-. The ratio of aerosol to gas-phase S in the BL was found to be similar tó that in the FT, despite the fact that removal of SO2 from the BL is expected to be much faster than that from the FT.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1847-1854
Number of pages8
JournalAtmospheric Environment
Volume22
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 1988

Keywords

  • particulate sulfate
  • Sulfur dioxide
  • sulfur flux

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