ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the work in the context of characterizing and apportioning elemental concentrations to their respective sources and of elucidating formation mechanisms and chemical transformation reactions of environmentally important particle types. Ship based measurements are very well suited for atmospheric environmental aerosol research purposes. The giant aluminosilicate particle fraction, consisting of both windblown dust and fly-ash, is positively correlated with altitude, which could be explained by the presence of a long-range transported mineral aerosol at high altitudes. The Laser Microprobe Mass Analysis technique has been applied to a set of aerosol samples collected on transect from a beach site toward and through a heavily polluted industrialized area. The Antarctic continent is the most distant area from the world’s predominant pollution sources, and the Antarctic aerosol has therefore been recognized as a “background aerosol.” A characterization of individual particles present in the Antwerp aerosol was performed by W. Van Borm et al.
