The secondary formation and diffusion processes of aerosol are extraordinarily complex and significantly impact the environment and human health. Understanding the process of aerosols’ formation and removal has obvious significance for the treatment and emission management of the atmospheric pollutants. Therefore, exploring the process of aerosol formation and diffusion based on independent new tracer has always been a concern.

Recently, a research group of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) technology and application from the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IEECAS) investigated the role of meteoric cosmogenic ⁷Be and ¹⁰Be in the aerosols’ secondary formation and removal.

Due to the cosmogenic ⁷Be and ¹⁰Be are single source, chemically inert, and adsorbed on aerosol transport, it is found that the dilution and tracing effect based on 7Be and 10Be can reveal the secondary formation and removal process of aerosols.

The researchers obtained the daily resolution atmospheric ⁷Be, ¹⁰Be, and ¹⁰Be/⁷Be in Xi'an heavy pollution period by AMS. Based on this observational record, the role of atmospheric origin ⁷Be and ¹⁰Be in the secondary formation and removal of aerosols is then investigated.

In this work, a single element tracer focused on the secondary formation and removal process of aerosols, which was different from the traditional method that only focus on the aerosols’ secondary formation through multiple-element tracer. In addition, the study quantified the degree of aerosol removal through precipitation, and also revealed the process of aerosol removal from a new perspective on the atmospheric vertical motion under stratospheric air intrusion. This study provided a new way to research the chemical and physical processes of aerosols using meteoric cosmogenic ⁷Be and ¹⁰Be.

This work published in Science of The Total Environment, was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (B) (Grant No. XDB40000000), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11975240), and Youth Innovation Promotion Association CAS.

Fig Schematic diagram of secondary generation and removal of tracer aerosols based on ⁷Be and ¹⁰Be (Image by LIU, et al)

Contact: Bai Jie, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China. Email: baijie@ieecas.cn