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Surface-to-mountaintop transport characterised by radon observations at the Jungfraujoch

Type of publication Peer-reviewed
Publikationsform Original article (peer-reviewed)
Author Griffiths A. D., Conen F., Weingartner E., Zimmermann L., Chambers S. D., Williams A. G., Steinbacher M.,
Project ICOS-CH: Integrated Carbon Observation System in Switzerland
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Original article (peer-reviewed)

Journal ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
Volume (Issue) 14(23)
Page(s) 12763 - 12779
Title of proceedings ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
DOI 10.5194/acp-14-12763-2014

Open Access

URL https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/14/12763/2014/acp-14-12763-2014.pdf
Type of Open Access Publisher (Gold Open Access)

Abstract

Atmospheric composition measurements at Jungfraujoch are affected intermittently by boundary-layer air which is brought to the station by processes including thermally driven (anabatic) mountain winds. Using observations of radon-222, and a new objective analysis method, we quantify the land-surface influence at Jungfraujoch hour by hour and detect the presence of anabatic winds on a daily basis. During 2010–2011, anabatic winds occurred on 40% of days, but only from April to September. Anabatic wind days were associated with warmer air temperatures over a large fraction of Europe and with a shift in air-mass properties, even when comparing days with a similar mean radon concentration. Excluding days with anabatic winds, however, did not lead to a better definition of the unperturbed aerosol background than a definition based on radon alone. This implies that a radon threshold reliably excludes local influences from both anabatic and non-anabatic vertical-transport processes.
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