Quantitative measurement of airborne sea-salt in the North Atlantic

Abstract

Measurements of airborne sea-salt concentration were taken from North Atlantic weather ships during 11 voyages throughout the period September 1974 to July 1975. Total sea-salt concentrations were measured by air sampling through membrane filters. Sampling sites were at heights of 5, 10 and 15 metres above sea level. A total of 1821 aerosol samples were taken with an average of 57 samples per site per voyage. An attempt has been made to correlate sea-salt concentration with wind speed and other meteorological factors. It was found that total sea-salt concentration could be represented as a function of wind speed by the equation In ? = 0.16u + 1.45 (? = sea-salt concentration in ?g m^?3 and u = wind speed in m s^?1) This shows good agreement with Blanchard and Syzdek's results. Observation of the time variation of sea-salt concentration and wind speed indicated residence times of the order of 12 to 24 hours. Attempts to distinguish dependence upon other meteorological parameters were not conclusive. DOI: 10.1111/j.2153-3490.1978.tb00851.x