Abstract
UNIQUE information on trace elements in polar atmospheres is available through records of deposition in snow and ice. Proper interpretation of these data requires a knowledge of the nontrivial chemical relationship between the deposition and its parent aerosol. Because several complex processes determine the trace-element content of precipitation, polar ice and snow cannot be considered a priori to have the same composition as polar aerosol1. In most of the current literature, such an assumption is usually made. Within the past year or so, the first tests of the long-term relationship between aerosol and deposition have been (inadvertently) produced for the Antarctic and the Arctic. The results are different for each region, and illustrate the great caution that must be exercised in this entire field. At the South Pole, snow from 1973–742 compares very well with aerosol from 1974–753—both media give the same impression of the environment2,4. In the Arctic, on the other hand, opposite conclusions about the atmosphere have been drawn from snow and aerosol, and this problem is discussed here.
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RAHN, K., MCCAFFREY, R. Compositional differences between Arctic aerosol and snow. Nature 280, 479–480 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/280479a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/280479a0
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