Potential source regions of biogenic aerosol number concentration apportioning at King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula

Abstract

Nowadays it is well accepted that background aerosols in the boundary layer over remote oceans are of marine origin and not aged continental. Particularly in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean at least four main important regions exhibit significant ocean primary productivity. They are the Bellingshausen–Amundsen Sea, the Weddell Sea, the southern Argentinean shelf and the southern Chilean coast. In this work, we have combined ground-based continuous atmospheric sampling of aerosol number concentration (ANC), over-sea dimethyl sulphide (DMS) measurements, chlorophyll a (chl a) concentration provided by Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) satellite images, in situ meteorological data and monthly regional NCEP-NCAR re-analysis wind fields in order to investigate the relative contribution of each of the above regions to the apportionment of the ANC at King George Island (KGI), South Shetland Islands. Our results suggest that, at least during the period from September 1998–December 1999, the southern Argentinean shelf acted as the main contributor to the ANC measured in KGI.