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Asian Air Pollution drifting over the pacific to afflict California

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Fuzzery

Member
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/feature-stories/2010/12/01/lead-isotopes-air-pollution/
About a third of the airborne lead particles recently collected at two sites in the San Francisco Bay Area came from Asia, a finding that underscores the far-flung impacts of air pollution and heralds a new way to learn more about its journey across vast distances.

In a first-of-its-kind study, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the California Air Resources Board tracked variations in the amount of lead transported across the Pacific over time.


This image from NASA's Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor shows dust suspended in the atmosphere above the coast of California on April 15, 2001. The dust was likely carried across the Pacific Ocean from the deserts of Asia. (Image: SeaWiFS Project, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, and ORBIMAGE)
They used the lead particles’ isotopic signature as a chemical return address, which enabled them to trace some of the lead’s origins to coal and metal ore found only in Asia.

“The overall concentration of lead in our samples was small, but a significant portion of it is from Asia,” says John Christensen, a staff scientists in Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division. He co-authored a study describing this research that was recently published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

It’s well known that particles and other aerosols cover long distances through the Earth’s atmosphere. But the details of this transport, such as that of the lead particles’ 7,000-mile journey from the smokestacks of China to the west coast of North America, are largely unknown. That could change.

“This work shows that we can use lead as a tracer for airborne particles within the growing Asian industrial plume,” adds Christensen. “We can use lead to more thoroughly understand the conditions over the Pacific Ocean that promote the transport of aerosols from Asia to the U.S.”

The team’s research could help scientists improve computer models that describe how dust-sized aerosols such as air pollution ride the winds across continents and oceans. It could also help air pollution regulators in the U.S. account for pollution that wafts in from thousands of miles away, possibly making it more difficult for some regions to comply with air quality standards.

“Transport models are uncertain,” says Stephanie Ewing, lead author of the paper and an assistant professor of pedology and soil biogeochemistry at Montana State University. She conducted the research while a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division.

Adds Ewing, “When we can distinguish between sources with an isotopic tool, we have tremendous quantitative power because the measurements are precise and we don’t have to rely on a transport model. In fact, we can use the measurements to test and improve the models.”

The isotopic composition of lead varies over large regions of the Earth’s crust. In some cases, a lead isotopic signature can be almost unique to a region. In Asia, for example, mineral dust and other sources of lead such as coal and metal ore have particularly high proportions of 208Pb, the isotope that forms from radioactive decay of thorium.

Lead’s geographical diversity was elucidated in a study conducted a decade ago by Australian scientists. They catalogued the lead isotopic concentrations at various places around the world, and among many findings, found a distinction between aerosols collected in China versus North America.

“This intrigued us,” says Christensen. “We wanted to look into this further and see if lead isotopes can be used to distinguish between local lead and far-traveled lead.”

Scientists from Berkeley Lab and the California Air Resources Board collected samples of fine airborne particles at two sites in the San Francisco Bay Area once a week from December 2007 to May 2008. One site was on Mt. Tamalpais, which rises from the coast north of San Francisco. Another site was further inland at the Chabot Observatory in the East Bay.

Samples were taken to beamline 10.3.1 of Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source, a national user facility that generates intense x-rays to probe the fundamental properties of substances. The facility enabled the scientists to identify the chemical composition of the samples and measure the concentrations of elements such as silicon, aluminum, iron, potassium, and lead.

They then chemically separated the lead from the other elements and used mass spectrometry to determine its isotopic composition. They found that a median value of 29 percent of the lead particles were of Asian origin.

The scientists also applied this analysis to archived air samples taken from urban sites in central California between 2003 and 2005. Although the prevalence of Asian lead varied from site to site and season to season, it was found throughout central California.

“We can use this information to guide the development of particulate transport models,” says Christensen. “Analysis of lead isotopes provides a powerful indicator for improved understanding of global-scale transport of dust, black carbon, anthropogenic lead and pollutants that drive climate feedback processes.”
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S

Stalfos

Member
Yeah lots of the west coast pollution comes from Asia. Here's a NASA news release from 2008 about the subject :

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/pollution_measure.html

217380main_May9_fires_label_500.jpg
 
B

BudokaiMR2

Member
Yeah it can be pretty crazy in Japan sometimes.

Come outside and wonder why it looks so hazy. Then you look at all the cars and buildings and see the yellow film covering them.

Fuck china.
 
S

shanshan310

Member
ItAintEasyBeinCheesy said:
All according to the Chinese word for plan.
Click to expand...

:lol

Crazy, I just did a take home exam on this.

Apparently Korea and Japan have had a hard time convincing China that pollution does actually carry over borders. I didn't realise so much of it reached over to the US though!
 
S

Stalfos

Member
Here is a NASA satellite image that shows the pollution movement from China and on its way to other countries. I would imagine the shape of the flume changes with weather patterns.

haze-movement.jpg
 
D

Dreams-Visions

Member
BudokaiMR2 said:
Ummm....what kind of grades did you make in geography?
Click to expand...
Never less than an A.

217380mainmay9fireslabe.jpg


I was obviously referring to the neon green area that I've circled just for you, asshole. The only part of Canada making an impact on this this NASA chart. (well, the biggest part, as some parts near Alaska are also showing up on the chart)

or did they not teach that bigass land mass was part of Canada in your refined education? If so and you just didn't see it, I'll be happy to recommend an Optometrist in your area. So you can get your shit checked out.
 
B

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
Dreams-Visions said:
what's going on in Northern Canada? oil/shale/coal/natural gas mining?
Click to expand...
I think you're asking too many questions, capiche?
 
P

perfectchaos007

Member
Dreams-Visions said:
Never less than an A.


I was obviously the neon green area that I've circled just for you, asshole. The only part of Canada making an impact on this this NASA chart.

or did they not teach that bigass land mass was part of Canada in your refined education? If so and you just didn't see it, I'll be happy to recommend an Optometrist in your area. So you can get your shit checked out.
Click to expand...

dayum.gif
 
S

SouthernDragon

Member
But clearly, enforcing emissions standards for everyone is a fucking waste of time because pollution respects political borders.

Oh wait.
 
B

BudokaiMR2

Member
Dreams-Visions said:
Never less than an A.

217380mainmay9fireslabe.jpg


I was obviously referring to the neon green area that I've circled just for you, asshole. The only part of Canada making an impact on this this NASA chart. (well, the biggest part, as some parts near Alaska are also showing up on the chart)

or did they not teach that bigass land mass was part of Canada in your refined education? If so and you just didn't see it, I'll be happy to recommend an Optometrist in your area. So you can get your shit checked out.
Click to expand...

It seems pretty obvious that those are just remnants of previous emissions. Or did you think that this phenomenon just started and hasn't been going on for years?

If there was any large amounts of activities it would be shown by the BRIGHT RED marks that you see everywhere else.

Haha sorry if I came off as an asshole. I just really thought you were confusing china with canada since there are no red marks of activity in Canada at all. There are more in Florida :p
 
B

Buba Big Guns

Banned
From a research project I just finished

xAI7r.png



Cardiopulmonary disease deaths directly caused by particulate matter (which is emitted from burning of fossil fuels).
 
K

KidA Seven

Member
Seems like the Bay Area gets the same amount of pollution that us Southern Califas dudes get. Fuck yes China. :lol :lol


Not really...
 
EYEL1NER

EYEL1NER

Member
Dreams-Visions said:
sucks to be Japan on Korea..
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Yeah it does. I got warned about Asian Dust/Yellow Dust within a day of getting off the plane and it was winter then, when it wasn't noticable. But when spring hit, holy shit...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Dust

All that sand coming from the Gobi desert, fillin up yo lungs, it was hell. And during exercises, when I would be in a DFP not only breathing the sand in the air, but all of the sand in the sandbags around me, and because of the stress, smoking over a pack a day for a week straight, yeah... I started coughing up a bit of blood. Which was mistaken for TB. So then I was started on INH treatment where I could not drink for 9 months.

Ughhhh, I do not have fond memories of it at all. Looking out a window at the E-Mart in Yongson and seeing a yellow haze over quite a bit of Seoul. The Gobi Desert can fuck off.
 
I

industrian

will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
I remember one day in Spring this year in Korea when the Yellow Sand was in the air. I'm not kidding when I say it looked like the aftermath of an apocalyptic event - the entire sky was a dark yellow haze.

That and I'm sure I got a good amount of my lungs filled with all those heavy metals, pollutants n' shit that China (with a little help from Mother Nature) likes to shit out over Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
 
B

BudokaiMR2

Member
industrian said:
I remember one day in Spring this year in Korea when the Yellow Sand was in the air. I'm not kidding when I say it looked like the aftermath of an apocalyptic event - the entire sky was a dark yellow haze.

That and I'm sure I got a good amount of my lungs filled with all those heavy metals, pollutants n' shit that China (with a little help from Mother Nature) likes to shit out over Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Click to expand...

Yeah the fact that a THIRD of the pollutants found in CALIFORNIA were from Asia/China(who are we kidding) is scary as fuck. I haven't seen a really bad yellow dust day in Japan for a while, but every time it did happen I tried to just stay inside. Scary shit.
 
F

Fuzzery

Member
industrian said:
I remember one day in Spring this year in Korea when the Yellow Sand was in the air. I'm not kidding when I say it looked like the aftermath of an apocalyptic event - the entire sky was a dark yellow haze.

That and I'm sure I got a good amount of my lungs filled with all those heavy metals, pollutants n' shit that China (with a little help from Mother Nature) likes to shit out over Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Click to expand...

Damn, sounds like hell. Lead poisoning no jokes
 
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