Aerosols interface, inorganic

Model building is part of all science lovely falsifiable hypotheses are built and then broken on the cold facts. Certain key components are common to all models of life s origins—water (though not necessarily in an ocean aerosols are possible hosts of proto-life) inorganic supplies of thermodynamic drive (i.e., interface settings where two or more different conditions are... 

An inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) is an effective spectroscopic excitation source, which in combination with atomic emission spectrometry (AES) is important in inorganic elemental analysis. ICP was also considered as an ion source for MS. An ICP-MS system is a special type of atmospheric-pressure ion source, where the liquid is nebulized into an atmospheric-pressure spray chamber. The larger droplets are separated from the smaller droplets and drained to waste. The aerosol of small droplets is transported by means of argon to the torch, where the ICP is generated and sustained. The analytes are atomized, and ionization of the elements takes place. Ions are sampled through an orifice into an atmospheric-pressure-vacuum interface, similar to an atmospheric-pressure ionization system for LC-MS. LC-ICP-MS is extensively reviewed, e.g., [12]. 

Geochemical Aspects of Inorganic Aerosols near the Ocean-Atmosphere Interface... 

Sources contributing to the composition of inorganic aerosols near the ocearir-atmosphere interface are the oceans themselves, continental dust, volcanic ash, atmospheric production of particulates, and, to lesser extents, human activity and extraterrestrial inputs. Characteristic elements and elemental ratios can be used to determine some of these sources and detect ion fractionation at the sea-air interface. Rain water chemistry is not always simply related to that of the marine aerosol. 

Inorganic aerosols near the ocean-atmosphere interface are composed of both salt and dust. The source of the dust is the continents. This is indicated by analyses that show the elements present in proportions close to those found for average crustal rocks. Further evidence is obtained from mineralogical investigation. Dust over the equatorial Atlantic has been found to originate in Africa, and dust in the South Pacific was traced to Australia. Little is known about the chemistry of aerosol dusts over the oceans. Significant changes in the dust component may occur... 

Table 5.1 classifies how chemical regimes meet in the climate system. We see that almost normal conditions occur and extreme low and high temperatures border the climate system. The chemistry described in the following chapters concerns almost these normal conditions of the climate system. We focus on the troposphere and the interfaces. For example, aqueous phase chemistry in cloud droplets does not differ principally from surface water chemistry (aquatic chemistry) and much soil chemistry does not differ from aerosol chemistry (colloidal chemistry). Plant chemistry, however, is different and only by using the generic terms (Chapter 2.2.2.S) of inorganic interfacial chemistry can we link it. The chemistry of the atmosphere is widely described (Seinfeld and Pandis 1998, Wameck 1999, Finlay-son-Pitts and Pitts 2000, Wayne 2000, Brasseur et al. 2003) and the branches in atmospheric chemistry are well defined (Fig. 5.2). 

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