Quantification of a significant marine organic aerosol source
In a GRL article we report a globally significant oceanic source of organic carbon aerosol. We use a combination of remote sensed chlorophyll-a, back trajectories and new observations of OC at 3 remote sites to derive an empirical relation between chlorophyll-a and the total oceanic OC emission flux. We estimate a global oceanic OC emission, from primary and secondary sources, of ~8 Tg/year. This emission is comparable in magnitude to the fossil fuel OC source and increases the simulated global OC burden by 20%.
This marine OC source is important because it is likely to vary with primary productivity and may account for some of the seasonal variation in cloud condensation nucleus concentrations seen at remote sites. First it needs to be established whether the OC is CCN active.
Spracklen, D. V., S. R. Arnold, J. Sciare, K. S. Carslaw, and C. Pio (2008), Globally significant oceanic source of organic carbon aerosol, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L12811, doi:10.1029/2008GL033359.