Author(s):
Pio, Casimiro 
; Legrand, Michel ; Oliveira, Tiago S. ; Afonso, Joana ; Santos, C. ; Caseiro, A. ; Fialho, Paulo ; Barata, Filipe ; Puxbaum, Hans ; Sanchez-Ochoa, A. ; Kasper-Giebl, Anne ; Gelencsér, András ; Preunkert, Susanne ; Schock, M.
Date: 2007
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/1513
Origin: Repositório da Universidade dos Açores
Subject(s): Atmospheric Aerosol; Climatology
Description
Copyright © 2007 American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. In the framework of the European CARBOSOL project (Present and Retrospective State of Organic versus Inorganic Aerosol over Europe: Implications for Climate), atmospheric aerosol was continuously sampled for 2 years at six sites along a west-east transect extending from Azores, in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, to K-Puszta (Hungary), in central Europe. Aerosols were analyzed for ²¹°Pb, inorganic ions, elemental (EC) and organic (OC) carbon, water soluble organic carbon (WSOC), macromolecular type (humic-like) organic substances (HULIS), C2–C5 diacids, cellulose, and levoglucosan. Pooled aerosol filters were also used for the identification of different families of organic compounds by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, GC/MS, as well as 14C determinations. The data resulted in a climatological overview of the aerosol composition over Europe in the various seasons, from west to east, and from the boundary layer to the free troposphere. The paper first summarizes the characteristics of the sites and collected samples and then focuses on the aerosol mass partitioning (mass closure, inorganic versus organic, EC versus OC, water soluble versus insoluble OC), giving an insight on the sources of carbonaceous aerosol present in rural and natural background areas in Europe. It also introduces the main role of other companion papers dealing with CARBOSOL aerosol data that are also presented in this issue.
