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High Time-Resolution Monitoring of Free-Tropospheric Sulfur Dioxide and Nitric Acid at the Summit of Mt. Fuji, Japan

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Abstract

This is the first paper that describes the atmospheric sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitric acid (HNO3) monitored with a good time-resolution at the summit (3776 m a.s.l.), which is located in the free troposphere, and southeastern foot (1284 m a.s.l.) of Mt. Fuji. Japan. During the summer of 2012, two analytical systems consisting mainly of a parallel-plate wet denuder and ion chromatograph operated simultaneously at both the sampling sites. All the samples collected at both the sampling sites contained detectable levels of sulfate from gas-phase SO2 while the nitrate from gas-phase HNO3 was detectable in 97.8% of air samples at the southeastern foot and 88.4% at the summit. The average concentrations of SO2 and HNO3 were, respectively, 0.061 ± 0.071 and 0.031 ± 0.020 ppbv at the summit (n = 672), and 0.347 ± 0.425 and 0.146 ± 0.070 ppbv at the southeastern foot (n = 1344) of Mt. Fuji. Both the acidic gases at the southeastern foot and the HNO3 at the summit showed a diurnal pattern with daytime maxima and nighttime minima. Meanwhile, the SO2 at the summit did not show a distinct shift, which indicates the SO2 concentrations at the summit would be principally controlled by the advection of air parcel in the free troposphere.

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Acknowledgements

This study was performed during the period in which the NPO “Valid Utilization of Mt. Fuji Weather Station” maintained the facilities, and partly supported by the Waseda University Grant for Special Research Projects A (2011A-608), the financial support of Japan Post Service Co., Ltd. in 2012, and the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research(C) (26340006) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, 1-78-1 Shomachi, Tokushima, 770-8505, Japan

    Masaki Takeuchi & Hideji Tanaka

  2. Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tokushima University, 1-78-1 Shomachi, Tokushima, 770-8505, Japan

    Yuki Miyazaki

  3. Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan

    Takaharu Isobe, Hiroshi Okochi & Hiroko Ogata

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  1. Masaki Takeuchi
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  2. Yuki Miyazaki
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  3. Hideji Tanaka
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  4. Takaharu Isobe
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  5. Hiroshi Okochi
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  6. Hiroko Ogata
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Correspondence to Masaki Takeuchi.

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Takeuchi, M., Miyazaki, Y., Tanaka, H. et al. High Time-Resolution Monitoring of Free-Tropospheric Sulfur Dioxide and Nitric Acid at the Summit of Mt. Fuji, Japan. Water Air Soil Pollut 228, 325 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-017-3514-2

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