Atmosphere residence time

The StabUity or persistence of a poUutant in the atmosphere depends on the poUutant s atmospheric residence time. Mean residence times and principal atmospheric sinks for a variety of species are given in Table 2. Species like SO2, (NO and NO2), and coarse particles have lifetimes less than... 

Table 2. Mean Atmospheric Residence Times (t) and Dominant Sinks of Air Pollutants...

Gas CAS Registry Number 1990 Concentrations Concentration increases, %/yr Greenhouse efficiency Atmospheric residence times, c yrs... 

Pollutants have various atmospheric residence times, with reactive gases and large aerosols being rapidly removed from air. In the London air pollution episode of December 1952, the residence time for sulfur dioxide was estimated to be five hours daily emissions of an estimated 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide were balanced by scavenging by fog droplets, which were rapidly deposited. Most relatively inert gases remain in the atmosphere for extended periods. Sulfur hexafluoride, used extensively in the electric power industiy as an insulator in power breakers because of its inertness, has an estimated atmospheric lifetime of 3,200 years. 

Transformation of parent contaminants into secondary products may occur during the processes of atmospheric diffusion and transport as a result of physical, chemicjd, and photochemical processes (22). Chemical conversion within the atmosphere may also change the physico-chemical characteristics of contaminants, dramatically altering their atmospheric residence times and fates from those of the parent contaminants. The complex reactions within the atmosphere that are driven by chemical processes such as hydroxyl scavenging... 

The average residence times for mercury in the atmosphere, terrestrial soils, oceans, and oceanic sediments are approximately 1 yr, 1000 yr, 3200 yr, and 2.5 x 10 yr, respectively. (See Bergan et al. (1999) for more details on atmospheric residence times.)... 

Although thermodynamically it is relatively simple to determine the amount of water vapor that enters the atmosphere using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation (see, e.g.. Chapter 6, Equation (1)), its resultant atmospheric residence time and effect on clouds are both highly uncertain. Therefore this seemingly easily describable feedback is very difficult to quantify. 

Although hydrogen sulfide does not react photochemically, it may be transformed to sulfur dioxide and sulfate by nonphotochemical oxidation reactions in the atmosphere. Its atmospheric residence time is typically less than 1 day (Hill 1973), but may be as high as 42 days in winter (Bottenheim and Strausz 1980). 

Lyman, W. 1982. Atmospheric Residence Time. In Handbook of Chemical Property Estimation Methods, Environmental Behavior of Organic compounds. Lyman, W.J., Reehl, W. F., and Rosenblatt D.H., eds. McGraw Hill Book company, New York, NY. 10-2-10-33. 

The most important transformation process for di-w-octylphthalate present in the atmosphere as an aerosol is reaction with photochemically produced hydroxyl radicals. The half-life for this reaction has been estimated to be 4.5 14.8 hours (Howard et al. 1991). Actual atmospheric half-lives may be longer since phthalate esters sorbed to wind-entrained particulates may have long atmospheric residence times (Vista Chemical 1992). Direct photolysis in the atmosphere is not expected to be an important process (EPA 1993a HSDB 1995). 

The atmospheric and chemical processes controlling the spatial and temporal variability of psychoactive substances in urban atmospheres are largely uncertain, mostly due to the fact that the atmospheric residence time of these compounds is so far unclear. The transport, transformation and deposition/atmospheric removal... 

The physical characteristics of individual particles also are of environmental significance. For example, the smaller particles (diameters on the order of 1 micrometer of less) generally are most important in that they have very long atmospheric residence times (18), are least effectively controlled by pollution control devices (19), are preferentially deposited in the pulmonary regions of the lung (20,21), and may be most enriched in toxic species on a specific concentration (iig/g) basis (22-24). 

In the atmosphere, the vapor pressure of the isomeric cresols, 0.11+0.30 mmHg at 25.5 °C (Chao et al. 1983 Daubert and Danner 1985), suggests that these compounds will exist predominantly in the vapor phase (Eisenreich et al. 1981). This is consistent with experimental studies that found all three isomers in the gas phase of urban air samples, but they were not present in the particulate samples collected at the same time (Cautreels and Vancauwenbergh 1978). The relatively high water solubility of the cresol isomers, 21,520- 25,950 ppm (Yalkowsky et al. 1987), indicates that wet deposition may remove them from the atmosphere. This is confirmed by the detection of cresols in rainwater (Section 5.4.2). The short atmospheric residence time expected for the cresols (Section 5.3.2.1) suggests that cresols will not be transported long distances from their initial point of release. 

Colman, J. J., D. R. Blake, and F. S. Rowland, Atmospheric Residence Time of CH2Br Estimated from the Junge Spatial Variability Relation, Science, 281, 392-396 (f998). 

It is concluded tentatively from these preliminary 210Bi/210Pb ratio data that tropospheric aerosols have a much shorter atmospheric residence time than is generally appreciated. If so, both natural aerosols and radioactive fallout observed at tropospheric levels will not be well mixed zonally but for the most part will be deposited within a few... 

Table II gives the residence time of C02 in the atmosphere before entering the sea as estimated from various data. The results of several different approaches to the data of Figure 1 (Column 4) suggest that the mean atmospheric residence time of C02 before entering the mixed layer of the sea is around 4 to 5 years, in good agreement with some of the earlier estimates based on natural 14C. A residence time of 10 years or more, which has sometimes been advocated, now seems to be untenable.

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