GEOSummit Baseline Measurements (Greenland Environmental Observatory at Summit)

AON 2008

GEOSummit Baseline Measurements(Greenland Environmental Observatory at Summit)

Joe McConnell1, Ryan Banta1, Tom Cahill2,

J. Burkhart3, and Roger Bales3

1Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, USA2University of California, Davis, USA

3University of California, Merced, USA

AON PI Annual Meeting, Boulder, CO 2007

AON 2008

Why GEOSummit?

• Summit is a unique site Ideal location to study remote troposphere, hydrology, and

further understand significance of deep ice core records long range transport is implicit reflect atmosphere and snow conditions representative of

regional to hemispheric-scale processes only high elevation mid-troposphere station

in northern high latitudes co-located research including snow-atmosphere

chemical transfer studies, long term climate records from deep ice cores, etc.

Year round measurements beginning 2000-2002 GEOSummit established 2003-2008

Summit Camp

AON 2008

Environmental Measurements

AON 2008

Con

cent

ratio

n (p

pb)

Na

Mg

Mn

Ca

Sr

Rb

Al

S

Pb

Surface SnowMeasurements

• Elemental analysis performed using an ICP-MS in a class 100 clean room

Surface Snow Sampling

AON 2008

Con

cent

ratio

n (p

pb)

Na

Mg

Mn

Ca

Sr

Rb

Al

S

Pb

Surface Snow Measurements

• Exhibits periods where many elemental concentrations co-vary

• Likely due to similar source areas and/or transport processes

• For example, spring peaks

AON 2008

10 Day Hysplit Backtrajectoryof Spring Peaks

AON 2008

Con

cent

ratio

n (p

pb)

Na

Mg

Mn

Ca

Sr

Rb

Al

S

Pb

Surface Snow Trace Elements

- pollution signals

• Periods of elevated S and Pb concentrations- possible pollution tracers

• Associated with less significant increases in: - Na (sea salt tracer)

- Al (dust tracer)

AON 2008

Con

cent

ratio

n (p

pb)

Na

Mg

Mn

Ca

Sr

Rb

Al

S

Pb

Surface Snow Trace Elements

- marine sources

• Periods of elevated S and Na concentrations- other elemental

concentrations are not elevated

- possible marine sources

AON 2008

10 Day Hysplit Backtrajectory of Marine Souces

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Aerosol Measurements• Drum impactor measures

amount and composition for 8 stages (sizes)

• Continuously collects samples every 6 to 24 hours

• Data from May 2003 - present

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Aerosol Size Fractionation• Dominant size fractions of aerosols are the smaller bins

(0.34 to 0.75 um)

• Fine aerosols uncorrelated with coarse aerosols

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Aerosol Characteristics• First spring sulfur peak is from USA• Second sulfur peak is from Asia (cross polar trajectories)

15

913

1721

2529

2610

1418

2226

303

711

1519

2327

3711

1519

2327

314

812

1620

2428

December January February March April May

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Nanogra

ms/m

3

0.26 to 0.090.34 to 0.26

0.56 to 0.340.75 to 0.56

1.15 to 0.752.5 to 1.15

5.0 to 2.5Inlet to 5.0

Sulfur Aerosols (coal combustion) at the Greenland Summit SiteSpring, 2005

AON 2008

Data Storage and Dissemination

• Currently stored as flat files (.txt) with associated ReadMe metafiles

• Made available to the public as soon as QA/QC processes are complete and/or presented in publications

• Expand current and future collaborations with several institutions already in progress

• Archived at www.geosummit.org

AON 2008

Thank you

www.geosummit.org