Sea salt aerosol elemental mole ratios from the Arctic Ocean 2018 marine aerosol reference tank experiments

Jessica A. Mirrielees, Rachel M. Kirpes, Patricia A. Matrai, Kerri A. Pratt

This dataset includes the mean and 95% confidence intervals for the mole ratios C/Na, Cl/Na, S/Na, N/Na, Mg/Na, Ca/Na measured from individual submicron and supermicron sea salt atmospheric particles collected during a series of marine aerosol reference tank (MART) experiments. These experiments were conducted during the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition to the central Arctic Ocean in August and September 2018. The MART employed a plunging jet mechanism to generate sea spray aerosol particles.

A series of 10 aerosol generation experiments were carried out using locally collected surface water from various locations in the Arctic, including the marginal ice zone, the North Pole, several open lead sites, and a melt pond on an ice floe.

The mole ratios were determined from the elemental composition of individual sea salt aerosol particles generated during the first nine experiments. Means and 95% confidence intervals were calculated from the population of particles falling within the submicron and supermicron ranges for each mole ratio.

Citation

Jessica A. Mirrielees, Rachel M. Kirpes, Patricia A. Matrai, Kerri A. Pratt (2024) Sea salt aerosol elemental mole ratios from the Arctic Ocean 2018 marine aerosol reference tank experiments. Dataset version 1. Bolin Centre Database. https://doi.org/10.17043/oden-ao-2018-mart-aerosol-mole-ratio-1

References

Kirpes, R. M., Bonanno, D., May, N. W., Fraund, M., Barget, A. J., Moffet, R. C., Ault, A. P., & Pratt, K. A. (2019). Wintertime Arctic Sea Spray Aerosol Composition Controlled by Sea Ice Lead Microbiology. In ACS Central Science (Vol. 5, Issue 11, pp. 1760–1767). American Chemical Society (ACS). https://doi.org/10.1021/acscentsci.9b00541

Laskina, O., Morris, H. S., Grandquist, J. R., Estillore, A. D., Stone, E. A., Grassian, V. H., & Tivanski, A. V. (2015). Substrate-Deposited Sea Spray Aerosol Particles: Influence of Analytical Method, Substrate, and Storage Conditions on Particle Size, Phase, and Morphology. In Environmental Science & Technology (Vol. 49, Issue 22, pp. 13447–13453). American Chemical Society (ACS). https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b02732

Data description

Data description: The data are provided in one comma-separated values (csv) file (~2KB). File structure (columns) and contents:

1. Name of experiment (description of water sampling location)
2. Date, format DD/MM/YYYY
3. Time (when surface water was sampled) in UTC, format HH:MM
4. Latitude (water sampling location)
5. Longitude (water sampling location)
6. Mean C/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
7. ±95% CI of l/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
8. Mean Cl/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
9. ±95% CI of Cl/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
10. Mean S/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
11. ±95% CI of S/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
12. Mean N/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
13. ±95% CI of N/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
14. Mean Mg/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
15. ±95% CI of Mg/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
16. Mean Ca/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
17. ±95% CI of Ca/Na mole ratio determined for submicron sea salt particles
18. Mean C/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
19. ±95% CI of l/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
20. Mean Cl/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
21. ±95% CI of Cl/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
22. Mean S/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
23. ±95% CI of S/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
24. Mean N/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
25. ±95% CI of N/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
26. Mean Mg/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
27. ±95% CI of Mg/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
28. Mean Ca/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles
29. ±95% CI of Ca/Na mole ratio determined for supermicron sea salt particles

Comments

Aerosol particles were sampled from the MART using a 10-stage rotating micro-orifice uniform deposit impactor (MOUDI, model 120R, MSP Corp.) at a flow rate of 3.5 LPM. An additional 26.5 LPM of particle-free air (filtered with a 1.2 µm pore size HEPA capsule, Pall Life Sciences) resulted in a total flow rate of 30 LPM to the MOUDI. The MOUDI collected particles on transmission electron microscopy (TEM) grids, silicon, and quartz (Ted Pella, Inc) on four stages (< 0.056 µm, 0.1-0.18 µm, 0.32-0.56 µm, and 1.0-1.8 µm aerodynamic diameter) for subsequent offline single-particle analysis. Following particle collection, the substrates were stored in the dark at room temperature (Laskina et al., 2015).

Sample analysis using computer-controlled scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (CCSEM-EDX) was performed at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a national scientific user facility located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and sponsored by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research of the U.S. Department of Energy. CCSEM-EDX was used to analyze individual particles collected on silicon from the MOUDI stages corresponding with the aerodynamic diameter ranges 0.1-0.18 µm, 0.32-0.56 µm, and 1.0-1.8 µm. Approximately 1500 individual particles were analyzed per silicon substrate (12,674 total particles from the MIZ, NP, IF1-4, IF+A, OP, and MP MART experiments). An FEI Quanta environmental scanning electron microscope (SEM) with a field emission gun operating at an accelerating voltage of 20 kV and beam current 0.48 nA was used for the CCSEM-EDX analysis. An Everhart-Thornley detector was used for SEM images and CCSEM-EDX for particles collected on silicon substrates. An EDX spectrometer (EDAX, Inc.) was used to collect X-ray spectra and quantify the relative atomic abundance of the elements C, N, O, Na, Mg, Al, P, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, V, Fe, Ni, and Zn for individual particles collected on silicon substrates.

The ship track with latitude and longitude information can be found in the Navigation, meteorological and surface seawater data from the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition data set.

The marine aerosol reference tank experiments were carried out during the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which was organized by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat.

A portion of this research was performed on a project award 51363 from the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Science User Facility sponsored by the Biological and Environmental Research program under Contract No. DE-AC05-76RL01830.