Seasonality of sulfur species (dimethyl sulfide, sulfate, and methanesulfonate) in Antarctica: Inland versus coastal regions

Abstract

To gain a better understanding of sulfate and methanesulfonate (MS−) signals recorded in central Antarctic ice cores in terms of past atmospheric changes, an atmospheric year‐round study of these aerosols was performed in 2006 at the Concordia station (75°S, 123°E) located on the high Antarctic plateau. In addition, a year‐round study of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), the gaseous precursor of sulfur aerosol, was conducted in 2007. The DMS mixing ratio remains below 1 pptv from October to January and exhibits a maximum of 10 pptv during the first half of winter (from April to July). Surprisingly, the well‐marked maximum of sulfur aerosol recorded in January at coastal Antarctic sites is observed at Concordia for sulfate but not for MS− which peaks before and after sulfate in November and March, respectively. This first study of DMS and of its by‐oxidation aerosol species conducted at inland Antarctica points out the complex coupling between transport and photochemistry of sulfur species over Antarctica. The findings highlight the complexity of the link between MS− ice core records extracted at high Antarctic plateau sites and DMS emissions from the Southern ocean.

Water-soluble organic carbon in snow and ice deposited at Alpine, Greenland, and Antarctic sites: a critical review of available data and their atmospheric relevance

“…4) reveal a weak maximum of WSOC aerosol levels in summer. Note that this contrasts with the rather strong summer maximum observed for sulfate and methanesulfonate in relation to strengthened marine biogenic DMS emissions from the Antarctic oceans of that season (Preunkert et al, 2008). Also, the WSOC seasonality differs from the one of sodium, which shows higher levels during the second half of winter 2011 than in summer.…”

Spatial distributions of soluble salts in surface snow of East Antarctica

“…However, due to the high volatility of NO À 3 and CH 3 SO À 3 (Wagnon et al, 1999;Ro¨thlisberger et al, 2002), melted samples of surface snow, firn and Holocene ice from inland Antarctica contain mainly sodium, chloride and sulphate ions (Legrand and Delmas, 1988a;Legrand and Mayewski, 1997;Petit et al, 1999;Watanabe et al, 2003;Iizuka et al, 2004Iizuka et al, , 2006Wolff et al, 2006;Fischer et al, 2007). These ions are considered to come from primary sea salt (sodium chloride) and marine biological activity (methane sulphonic and sulphuric acids) in the Southern Ocean (Legrand and Delmas, 1985, 1988a, 1988bLegrand et al, 2001;Wolff et al, 2006;Fischer et al, 2007;Jourdain et al, 2008;Preunkert et al, 2008;Udisti et al, 2012). As these soluble aerosols typically travel more than several hundred kilometres from the Southern Ocean to inland Antarctica, with very little aerosol added from the Antarctic ice sheet, the composition of soluble aerosols sampled inland is a good indicator of how secondary aerosols are formed (Legrand and Delmas, 1988b;Kerminen et al, 2000;Delmas et al, 2003a).…”

“…Na ' and Cl ( ) and minor aerosol constituents of minerals and carbonaceous species (e.g. soot and organics) (Kerminen et al, 2000;Legrand et al, 2001;Jourdain et al, 2008;Preunkert et al, 2008;Udisti et al, 2012). To better understand the origins of these constituents and the chemical reactions that occur on aerosol particles, single-particle analyses of Antarctic aerosols have been done (Parungo et al, 1979;Artaxo et al, 1992;Hara et al, 1995Hara et al, , 2005Hara et al, , 2013Mouri et al, 1999).…”

Formaldehyde (HCHO) in air, snow, and interstitial air at Concordia (East Antarctic Plateau) in summer

“…For simulations at Concordia, we neglected the oxidation of ethene and DMS oxidation pathways. Indeed, even with a DMS summer mixing ratio of 50 pptv at DDU (compared to less than 1 pptv at Concordia; Preunkert et al, 2008), and an ethene level of 17 pptv (compared to less than 3 pptv expected for Concordia as measured at South Pole; Beyersdorf et al, 2010), concluded that the gas-phase production of HCHO from DMS and non-methane hydrocarbons only represents a few percent of the gas-phase production (i.e., ∼ 4 %) dominated by the methane oxidation. The 15 gas-phase reactions considered in this work (see Table 1) will also allow for the influence of the bromine chemistry to be evaluated.…”