One Year’s Continuous Aerosol Sampling at Summit in Central Greenland

Aerosol samples were collected continuously in two size fractions from June 1993 to June 1994 at a site 6 km north of the GRIP camp at Summit in central Greenland. The battery-driven sampling equipment was designed for automatic operation and low energy consumption. The samples were analyzed for elements using Particle Induced X-ray Emission (PIXE). The elements Al, Si, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Zn, Br, Sr and Pb were measured well above the detection limits in many samples. The contents of most of these elements can be attributed to three sources, a crustal, a sea salt and an anthropogenic source. Additional contributions from other sources seem to be of importance for S and especially for Br. The crustal source had a peak incidence in the spring, while the anthropogenic source was present all year, strongest in winter and spring. The sea salt signal was very weak and difficult to resolve from the data, but was strongest in the winter. The results from Summit are compared with published data from Dye 3 on the southern part of the Greenland Ice Sheet, and with measurements from Station Nord, a sea level site in northeastern Greenland.