Identification of individual aerosol particles containing Cr, Pb, and Zn above the North Sea
Van Malderen, H.; Hoornaert, S.; Van Grieken, R. (1996). Identification of individual aerosol particles containing Cr, Pb, and Zn above the North Sea. Environ. Sci. Technol. 30(2): 489-498
In: Environmental Science and Technology. American Chemical Society: Easton. ISSN 0013-936X; e-ISSN 1520-5851, more
Aerosol samples have been collected over the Southern Bight of the North Sea from an aircraft. In this way, 96 samples were taken for single-particle analysis during 16 flights. Almost 45,000 individual particles were analyzed with electron probe X-ray microanalysis. More than 5,000 of these were found to contain significant concentrations of one or more of the heavy metals Cr, Pb, and Zn. With the help of hierarchical, nonhierarchical, and fuzzy clustering techniques, various heavy metal-containing particle types could be identified. Significant differences in abundances were detected in the North Sea heavy metal aerosol, depending on the origin of the air masses. In samples with continental influence 50 times more Zn- and Pb-containing particles were found than in samples with a marine history. For Cr, on the other hand, we found abundances in the marine sector that were one-third of the values for continental sectors. This might point to a rather undefined marine source, which could be the recycling of previously deposited material by reinjection into the atmosphere by sea spray. The highest values for Cr-, Pb-, and Zn-containing particles were always detected under southeastern wind directions.
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