Articles | Volume 24, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8049-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8049-2024
Research article
 | 
16 Jul 2024
Research article |  | 16 Jul 2024

Diverging trends in aerosol sulfate and nitrate measured in the remote North Atlantic in Barbados are attributed to clean air policies, African smoke, and anthropogenic emissions

Cassandra J. Gaston, Joseph M. Prospero, Kristen Foley, Havala O. T. Pye, Lillian Custals, Edmund Blades, Peter Sealy, and James A. Christie

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Cited articles

Adams, A. M., Prospero, J. M., and Zhang, C. D.: CALIPSO-derived three-dimensional structure of aerosol over the Atlantic Basin and adjacent continents, J. Climate, 25, 6862–6879, 2012. 
Adams, J. W., Rodriguez, D., and Cox, R. A.: The uptake of SO2 on Saharan dust: a flow tube study, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 2679–2689, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-5-2679-2005, 2005. 
Adams, P. J., Seinfeld, J. H., and Koch, D. M.: Global concentrations of tropospheric sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium aerosol simulated in a general circulation model, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 13791–13823, https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JD900083, 1999. 
Adebiyi, A. A. and Zuidema, P.: The role of the southern African easterly jet in modifying the southeast Atlantic aerosol and cloud environments, Q. J. Roy., 142, 1574–1589, 2016. 
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To understand how changing emissions have impacted aerosols in remote regions, we measured nitrate and sulfate in Barbados and compared them to model predictions from EPA’s Air QUAlity TimE Series (EQUATES). Nitrate was stable, except for spikes in 2008 and 2010 due to transported smoke. Sulfate decreased in the 1990s due to reductions in sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the US and Europe; then it increased in the 2000s, likely due to anthropogenic emissions from Africa.
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