GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 26, NO. 6, PAGES 711-714, MARCH 15, 1999
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Dan Jaffe, Theodore Anderson, Dave Covert, Robert Kotchenruther
University of Washington;
Barbara Trost, Jen Danielson, William Simpson
University of Alaska-Fairbanks;
Terje Berntsen and Sigrun Karlsdottir
University of Oslo; and, Center for International Climate and Environmental Research, Oslo
Donald Blake
University of California-Irvine
Joyce Harris
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory
Greg Carmichael
University of Iowa-Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research
Itsushi Uno
Kyushu University-Research Institute for Applied Mechanics
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Abstract
Using observations from the Cheeka Peak Observatory in northwestern Washington State we show that Asian anthropogenic emissions significantly impact the concentrations of a large number of atmospheric species in the air arriving to North America during spring. Isentropic back-trajectories can be used to identify possible times when this impact will be felt, however trajectories alone are not sufficient to indicate the presence of Asian pollutants. Detailed chemical and meteorological data from one of these periods (March 29th, 1997) indicates that the surface emissions were lifted into the free troposphere over Asia and then transported to North America in ~6 days.