Principales cationes solubles en agua y fraccionamiento iónico del aerosol atmosférico marino.

Abstract

Atmospheric aerosol samples were collected in 1979, during two periods: from January to March, and from May to July, on board the ship Mariano Matamoros, in the North East Equatorial Pacific Ocean (70 N, 84° W). The principal cations soluble in water, potassium, calcium and magnesium were determined, with the purpose of evaluating their enrichment factors with respect to sodium. The results show that the cation distributions are represented by log-normal curves. The mean enrichment factors, obtained from the concentration ratios: K:Na, Ca:Na, were larger than a 100% while for Mg:Na the factor was not significantly different from zero, its only source being the sea salts. Using a multiple variable regression, a contribution from aerosols of continental and background origin was found for K, and Ca.