First-year sea ice leads to an increase in dimethyl sulfide-induced particle formation in the Antarctic Peninsula

Eunho Jang; Ki-Tae Park; Young Jun Yoon; Kitae Kim; Yeontae Gim; Hyun Young Chung; Kitack Lee; Jinhee Choi; Jiyeon Park; Sang-Jong Park; Ja-Ho Koo; Rafael P Fernandez; Alfonso Saiz-Lopez

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150002

First-year sea ice leads to an increase in dimethyl sulfide-induced particle formation in the Antarctic Peninsula

Sci Total Environ. 2022 Jan 10:803:150002. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150002. Epub 2021 Aug 31.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, South Korea; University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea.
² Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, South Korea; University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, South Korea. Electronic address: ktpark@kopri.re.kr.
³ Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, South Korea.
⁵ Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁶ Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (ICB), National Research Council (CONICET), FCEN-UNCuyo, Mendoza, Argentina.
⁷ Department of Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate, Institute of Physical Chemistry Rocasolano, CSIC, Madrid, Spain.

PMID: 34482143
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150002

Abstract

Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) produced by marine algae represents the largest natural emission of sulfur to the atmosphere. The oxidation of DMS is a key process affecting new particle formation that contributes to the radiative forcing of the Earth. In this study, atmospheric DMS and its major oxidation products (methanesulfonic acid, MSA; non-sea-salt sulfate, nss-SO₄^2-) and particle size distributions were measured at King Sejong station located in the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral spring-summer period in 2018-2020. The observatory was surrounded by open ocean and first-year and multi-year sea ice. Importantly, oceanic emissions and atmospheric oxidation of DMS showed distinct differences depending on source regions. A high mixing ratio of atmospheric DMS was observed when air masses were influenced by the open ocean and first-year sea ice due to the abundance of DMS producers such as pelagic phaeocystis and ice algae. However, the concentrations of MSA and nss-SO₄^2- were distinctively increased for air masses originating from first-year sea ice as compared to those originating from the open ocean and multi-year sea ice, suggesting additional influences from the source regions of atmospheric oxidants. Heterogeneous chemical processes that actively occur over first-year sea ice tend to accelerate the release of bromine monoxide (BrO), which is the most efficient DMS oxidant in Antarctica. Model-estimates for surface BrO confirmed that high BrO mixing ratios were closely associated with first-year sea ice, thus enhancing DMS oxidation. Consequently, the concentration of newly formed particles originated from first-year sea ice, which was a strong source area for both DMS and BrO was greater than from open ocean (high DMS but low BrO). These results indicate that first-year sea ice plays an important yet overlooked role in DMS-induced new particle formation in polar environments, where warming-induced sea ice changes are pronounced.

Keywords: Antarctic peninsula; Bromine monoxide; Dimethyl sulfide; First-Year Sea ice; New particle formation; Sulfurous particles.

MeSH terms

Antarctic Regions
Ice Cover*
Seawater*
Sulfides / analysis

Substances

Sulfides
dimethyl sulfide