Abstract
Marine aerosols have extensively been monitored in the framework of a research project to investigate the inorganic and organic nutrient fluxes of the atmospheric nitrogen input into the North Sea. As a part of this project bulk analysis was also performed by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) on a total of 366 samples in order to provide detailed elemental composition. Samples have been clustered per campaign and differences were related to backward trajectories. Elements as Cl, Si, and S appeared to be the best tracers for coastal aerosols. Therefore they have been chosen to represent each campaign and to map the seasonal variations. It is clear that Cl is an excellent tracer for oceanic trajectories, while a less clear correlation between the soil dust components and the air mass trajectories is found.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Belgian Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs (OSTC—EV/06/39A). The authors also wish to thank J. Van Loock (University of Antwerp) for his technical support, A. Cattrijsse, F. Broecke, and J. Mees (Flanders Marine Institute—VLIZ) for their great help in the sampling, and F. Hernandez (VLIZ) for the supply of meteorological data. Also the support and contribution of the other partners in this project are highly respected, with special thanks to A. F. L. Godoi, R. H. M. Godoi, S. Potgieter-Vermaak, and R. Wuyts. L. Bencs expresses his thanks for the support by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA—F67647). Alin C. Dirtu acknowledges an EC grant within the Marie Curie program HPMT-CT-2001-00310. A. Worobiec appreciates FWO support for a post-doctoral position. The authors gratefully acknowledge the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) for the provision of the HYSPLIT transport and dispersion model and/or READY website (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready.html)used in this publication.
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Van Meel, K., Horemans, B., Krata, A. et al. Elemental concentrations in aerosols at the Belgian coast versus seasons and air mass trajectories. Environ Chem Lett 8, 157–163 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-009-0203-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-009-0203-4