Date of Award

2012-01-01

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Geological Sciences

Advisor(s)

Rosa M. Fitzgerald

Second Advisor

Thomas E. Gill

Abstract

The African continent is the principal contributor of mineral aerosols into the atmosphere. It is also a significant source of carbonaceous aerosols resulting from rampant biomass burning activities. Both aerosol types have a profound impact on climate change and are an important factor in climate modeling, regional weather forecasting, as well as health-impact studies. Due to their importance, it is beneficial to characterize the transport and evolution of these aerosols from their origins in Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean and into the Americas. In-situ aerosol number distributions were collected during the 2009 Aerosols and Ocean Science Expeditions (AEROSE) V campaign, in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. For the purpose of establishing air mass type, HYSPLIT 7-day backward trajectories were generated from July 12, 2009 to August 4, 2009 on a daily basis, on 6-hour intervals: at 00hrs, 06hrs, 12hrs and 18hrs; at five different elevations: 10m, 100m, 500m, 1000m and 500m. This amounted to a total of four hundred and forty trajectories. This research presented statistical analysis of air mass occurrences per regimen type for 6-hour intervals contrasted with daily averaged air mass types. To do so, each trajectory was backtracked to their source region and air type regimen was established according to NAAPS/FLAMBE/MODIS forecasts and datasets

Language

en

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Size

155 pages

File Format

application/pdf

Rights Holder

Mariana Guereque

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