QUALITATIVE DETERMINATION OF SOURCE REGIONS OF AEROSOL IN CANADIAN HIGH ARCTIC

A hybrid receptor model that combines both chemical and meteorological information was employed to identify the potential regions of source emission for aerosol measured at Alert, Northwest Territories (82.3-de grees-N, 62.5-degrees-W) in the Canadian Arctic. This model explores t he use of 5-day air parcel backward trajectories to describe the long- range transport of atmospheric heavy metals and sulfate species throug h the potential source contribution function (PSCF) receptor model. Th e modeling results presented are for the observations made between Nov ember 1 and March 20 from 1982 to 1987, i.e., the Arctic winter, since concentrations of trace elements are generally higher in the winter. A number of geographical locations in the former USSR and Europe are f ound to be of high potential to be the emission source areas. The usef ulness of using elemental ratios in the PSCF analysis for identifying source regions contributing to the pollution in the Arctic was explore d.