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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS,
VOL. 31,
L16114,
4 PP., 2004
doi:10.1029/2004GL020655
Frost flowers on sea ice as a source of sea salt and their influence on tropospheric halogen chemistry
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Germany
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge, UK
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Cambridge, UK
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany
Frost flowers grow on newly-formed sea ice from a saturated water vapour layer. They provide a large effective surface area and a reservoir of sea salt ions in the liquid phase with triple the ion concentration of sea water. Recently, frost flowers have been recognised as the dominant source of sea salt aerosol in the Antarctic, and it has been speculated that they could be involved in processes causing severe tropospheric ozone depletion events during the polar sunrise. These events can be explained by heterogeneous autocatalytic reactions taking place on salt-laden ice surfaces which exponentially increase the reactive gas phase bromine (“bromine explosion”). We analyzed tropospheric bromine monoxide (BrO) and the sea ice coverage both measured from satellite sensors. Our model based interpretation shows that young ice regions potentially covered with frost flowers seem to be the source of bromine found in bromine explosion events.
Received 2 June 2004; accepted 2 August 2004; published 25 August 2004.
Citation: (2004), Frost flowers on sea ice as a source of sea salt and their influence on tropospheric halogen chemistry, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L16114, doi:10.1029/2004GL020655.
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