Residence times of fine tropospheric aerosols as determined by {sup 210}Pb progeny.

Fine tropospheric aerosols can play important roles in the radiative balance of the atmosphere. The fine aerosols can act directly to cool the atmosphere by scattering incoming solar radiation, as well as indirectly by serving as cloud condensation nuclei. Fine aerosols, particularly carbonaceous soots, can also warm the atmosphere by absorbing incoming solar radiation. In addition, aerosols smaller than 2.5 {micro}m have recently been implicated in the health effects of air pollution. Aerosol-active radioisotopes are ideal tracers for the study of atmospheric transport processes. The source terms of these radioisotopes are relatively well known, and they are removed from the atmosphere only by radioactive decay or by wet or dry deposition of the host aerosol. The progeny of the primordial radionuclide {sup 238}U are of particular importance to atmospheric studies. Uranium-238 is common throughout Earth's crust and decays to the inert gas {sup 222}Rn, which escapes into the atmosphere. Radon-222 decays by the series of alpha and beta emissions shown in Figure 1 to the long-lived {sup 210}Pb. Once formed, {sup 210}Pb becomes attached to aerosol particles with average attachment times of 40 s to 3 min.