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FINE-PARTICLE SODIUM TRACER FOR LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT OF THE KUWAITI OIL FIRE PLUME
Citation:
Lowenthal, D., R. Borys, R. Stevens, AND J. Pinto. FINE-PARTICLE SODIUM TRACER FOR LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT OF THE KUWAITI OIL FIRE PLUME. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-94/238 (NTIS PB94170107).
Description:
Evidence for long-range transport of the Kuwaiti oil-fire smoke during the months following the Persian Gulf War has been more or less indirect. or example, high concentrations of aerosols containing soot and oil-combustion tracers such as vanadium observed at great distances from the Middle East may still have come from sources other than the oil fires. owever, more recent data on the aerosol chemistry of Kuwaiti oil fire plumes provides a direct link between those fires and aerosols collected at the Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) during the late spring and summer of 1991. y itself, temporal covariation of fine-particle concentrations of elemental carbon, sulfur, and the noncrustal VlZn ratio in MLO aerosols suggested a link to large scale oil-combustion sources, but not necessarily in Kuwait. owever, high concentrations of fine particle (0.1-1.0u diameter) NaCl were observed in the "white" oil-fire plumes over Kuwait during the summer of 1991. urther analysis of the Mauna Loa data indicates a near perfect temporal correspondence between the noncrustal VlZn and noncrustal Na/Zn ratios. n the absence of other demonstrable sources of fine-particle Na, these relationships provide a direct link between the Kuwaiti oil fires and aerosol observed at MLO.