Airborne observations of Arctic aerosols. III: Origins and effects of airmasses

Abstract

Multiple layers of haze encountered in the troposphere over the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas during April 1983 occurred in airmasses that originated in eastern USSR, eastern North America and Asia. This, together with observations on the composition and nature of the hazes, indicate that they were primarily anthropogenic in origin. Giant particles (>2 µm in diameter), on the other hand, which were distributed roughly uniformly with height in the troposphere, appeared to have both anthropogenic and natural origins. Relationships between the haze layers and adjacent regions of clean air are discussed.