Refractory black carbon mass and number size distributions in West Antarctica snow and firn samples

An extended-range Single-Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) coupled to a Marin-5 nebulizer was used to measure the size distributions in the Department of Geological Sciences, Central Washington University, WA, USA. The SP2 was calibrated using Aquadag and a Centrifugal Particle Mass Analyzer for BC particles ranging from 0.5 to 800 fg.

We present our results as three groups: mass and number distribution for the full core, for the wet season and for the dry season. Wet and dry season subsets are a result of grouping individual samples in 94 seasonally resolved clusters (wet season subset = summer/fall, 474 samples and 47 clusters; dry season subset = winter/spring, 530 samples and 47 clusters). The number of clusters is due to the estimated dating of the core (47 years).