Measurements of Hydrocarbons in Polar Maritime Air Masses

This paper is a shortened version of one to be published in the refereed literature [Penkett, et al., 1993]. Its relevance to the NATO Workshop held in Nova Scotia in 1992 is associated with the particular condition of meteorology and chemistry that pertain in the Arctic and allows large concentrations of relatively reactive molecules to build up in wintertime at high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. Also, the location of the densely populated continents of North America, Europe and parts of Asia with respect to the polar areas ensures that significant fractions of the pollutants emitted in these land areas are able to pollute the polar areas to a high degree. This phenomenon was first identified as the arctic haze [S.A. Penkett, 1981], however, the co-presence of many gases at high concentrations could be of considerably more consequence to the pollution of the northern hemisphere as a whole.