INVESTIGATION OF PARTICULATE MATTER BY SIZE AND COMPOSITION DURING VATOX, JANUARY 1986

Samples of fine (Dp <2.5 m) particulate matter were taken during the Western Atlantic Ocean Experiment (WATOX) flights of January 1986 and at three remote continental sites in Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah, and Acadia National Parks. Samples were analyzed for mass, hydrogen (an organic matter tracer), sulfur, silicon (a soil tracer), potassium (a smoke tracer), zinc (presumed largely anthropogenic in this size mode), and other elements heavier than sodium. The results show that the WATOX period was typical of mean winter aerosol conditions, 1983-1986, and that, for most species, the continental sites were quite similar in concentrations. These data were compared with WATOX aircraft data of January 4, 6, 8, and 9 in order to evaluate aerosol transport and transformations. The soil and smoke tracers, Si and K, averaged about 15% of remote continental sites, while S and H averaged 30% of the continental sites. The higher values for these reactive species could reflect either transport from the urban seaboard sources or gas to particle transformations during transport. Zinc averaged 35% of continental values, with a high degree of variability from flight to flight, a possible consequence of seaboard industrial activity.