Association of Non-Marine Sulfate Aerosol with Sea Breeze Circulation in Tampa Bay

Abstract

Peak concentrations of aerosol sulfur in Tampa, Florida may be the result of either regional-scale transformation and transport processes or local-scale transport from nearby air pollution sources. The existence of the latter has been demonstrated in Tampa through correspondence of sulfur with sea breeze circulation patterns and the resulting chloride concentration maxima (which serve as indicators of the marine aerosol), vanadium concentration maxima (which indicate times of high concentrations of certain plume constituents), and the locations of sources favorable for high concentrations of air pollution-derived sulfate during occurrences of the sea breeze. The analysis indicates that locally derived sulfate in the Tampa atmosphere, which may be less abundant than sulfate due to regional-scale processes, can be identified by the use of combined meteorological and chemical tracer interpretation.