Atmospheric Aerosol Science Before 1900

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Atmospheric Aerosol Science Before 1900

• Rudolf B. Husar
• Center for Air Pollution Impact and Trend
  Analysis
• Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA

Presented at the Symposium History of Aerosol
Science Vienna, Austria August 31 - September 2,
1999 http//capita.wustl.edu/CAPITA/CapitaReports
/HistoryOfAerosolVienna/AerosolHistoryB1900/index.
htm
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1700-1900 From Enlightenment to Modern Science

• 1700 - 1800 Era of Enlightenment. Emergence of
  naturalists, architects, engineers, geographers
  and many new ideas, good and poor.
• 1800-1850 Focus was on the origin of haze
  aerosols. The era was a transition form
  theory-driven to observation-based atmospheric
  aerosol science
• 1850-1900 Consolidation of the theories of haze
  origin and focus on the physical laws that govern
  the behavior of atmospheric aerosols.

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Kempf, 1914 Regional Haze

• Die Entwicklung der Therorien uber Hochenrauch
• The Development of Theories on Regional Haze up
  to 1870
• Dissertation by N. Kempf (1914)
• Regional haze is a strong haziness of relatively
  dry air with large spatial extent and longer
  duration.

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Theories on the Causes of Regional Haze
Kempf, 1914

• Vapor Emissions from the Earth (earthquakes)
• Electricity and Thunderstorms
• Cosmic Ash
• Volcanic Ash
• Windblown Dust
• Combustion Processes

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Haze form Gaseous Emissions from the Earth

• Mostly attributed to bursts of emissions during
  earthquakes.
• I. Kant (1756) in Locarno, IT In two hours a hot
  reddish haze has spread over the valley and
  turned into red rain, which beyond doubt, is
  linked to earthquake activity.
• Marconelle (1783) Springtime warming causes the
  emission of fermentation products to the
  atmosphere. Sunshine evaporates the water leaving
  only solid particles that constitute the dry
  fog. Biogenic emissions?

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Haze from Electricity (Thunderstorms)

• Verdiel (1783) Haze is composed of droplets
  filled with electrical fluid that is attracted
  upward by the electricity in the upper atmosphere
• Hoyer (1819) Lightning dissociates water into H
  and O and the Oxygen combines with Phosphorus to
  form Phosphoric Acid. The smell of haze clearly
  indicates its electrical origin. ozone?
• Schriber (1844) The peculiar smell of the haze
  is due to the ozone produced by the electric
  discharges

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Haze from Meteoric-Cosmic Aerosol

• Meteors and cosmic dust burns up in the
  atmosphere and the smoke deposits to the land.
• Meteors contribute not less than 1 inch/century
  of solid material for the globe..
• B. Franklin (1784) has also invoked the cosmic
  dust theory to explain the hazy and chilly year
  of 1783.

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Haze from Volcanic Emissions

• Seneca (ca. 60 AD) has noted that Volcanic gases
  and ash cause atmospheric turbidity.
• However, only in the 1700s was discovered that
  volcanic aerosols is spread over large part of
  the globe.
• B. Franklin has noted that the haze in 1783 may
  have been due to an eruption in Island.

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Volcanic Aerosol Dust or Droplets?

• The beautiful sky colors produced by volcanic
  aerosol from Krakatoa and Pelee must have been
  produced by droplets of condensation.
• It would require a long mechanical grinding to
  make a such a uniformly fine impalpable powder

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Volcanic Aerosol and Global Circulation

• In 1883 red sunsets were observed throughout the
  world. The Royal Society has issued a scientific
  competition to explain the global phenomenon
• Kiessling (1888) won the the prize by documenting
  that the unique optical phenomena were due to the
  1883 Krakatoa eruption
• The explanation also contributed to dynamic
  meteorology by invoking the the Global General
  Circulation of the atmosphere

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Haze from Windblown Dust

• Throughout history is was known that windblown
  dust may cause regional haze and acquired
  different names
• Harmattan (W. Africa)
• Calina (Spain)
• Gobar ( E. Africa)
• Haboob (Arabia)
• Kosa (Japan)
• Yellow Sand (Korea)

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Dust in Fiume, March 1901

• The bright reddish dust under polarizing
  microscope showed mostly colorless and some
  colored, irregular fragments of crystals together
  with skeletons of microorganisms and small
  particles of soot.
• The dust fall averaged between 260 and 1400 g/m2
  in Fiume.
• The Fiume dust belongs to the same class as the
  Trade Wind dust which blows from Africa over the
  Atlantic

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History of Dust Episodes in China
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Haze due to Combustion Processes

• Gehlers Physical Dictionary, 1833 Combustion of
  organic materials produce solid, liquid and
  gaseous products.
• Atmospheric turbidity is caused by the solid and
  liquid products

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Long Range Transport of Combustion Products

• F. Bacon (ca 1600) The Gasgogner have complained
  to the King of of England that smoke from the
  springtime burning of seaweed in Sussex has
  spoiled the wine flowers
• Wargentin and Gadolin (1767) Forest fires in
  Russia and Finland are causing regional haze in
  Europe. Given the location of the fires, as well
  as the appearance of smoke at different
  locations, the path of the smoke can be
  geographically mapped.

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Regional Haze in N. Europe in the 1800s

• In the 1800, Northern Europe (Germany, Holland)
  was frequently under thick layers of haze.
• The regional haze covered much of the flatland
  north of the Alps extending to Paris.
• A century long debate begun on the causes of the
  thick haze local vs long range transport smoke,
  dust, earthquakes...

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Peat Smoke Episode
Prestel, 1861
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Pattern of Peat Smoke Pollution in NC Europe

• Kemp (1914)

• Agricultural peat burning begun early in the
  1800s and peaked in 1860s.
• Due to public pressure and diminishing swamp land
  the practice stopped by the 1870s

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Thoughts on Atmospheric Dust
Constantin Rafinesque, 1818

• Dust exists even on the tops of the highest
  mountains. It settles slowly in clear weather but
  is quickly washed down by rain and snow
• A portion is formed chemically in the atmosphere
  by combination of gases and elementary particles
  dissolved in in the air
• Some dust is from the pulverization of road and
  field surfaces
• Other dust comes from materials in the activity
  of mankind but whence arises the dust observed by
  means of sunbeams?

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Dialog of Rafinesque

• Anonymous comment(1920) All dust comes from the
  action of the wind, even the dust at sea, carried
  1500 miles over the Atlantic
• Rafinesque I do not deny that the winds raise
  terrestrial dust and often carry it to distance
  but I assert ...with Virey, Patrin, Deluc, and
  other philosophers, that there must be another
  independent formation of dust in the besides the
  scanty terrestrial supply wafted by the winds.

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Rafinesque The Rays of Sun

• The sun rays are not an optical reflection from
  the atmosphere since it is brighter and not so
  azure. It must be dust.
• The phenomenon can be seen even after long and
  heavy rains which must have precipitated all the
  terrestrial dust to the ground.
• Whence the dust must be continually formed formed
  in the atmosphere.

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Gas-Particle Conversion
Rafinesque, 1820

• We know that sulfur, muriate of ammonia, etc. can
  be formed by sublimation of gases
• That smoke soot, volcanic productions,
  meteorites, earths, and even stones or metals may
  be spontaneously combined by a casual meeting of
  gaseous emanations.
• It is not, therefore, difficult to conceive how
  dusty particles may be formed in the great
  chemical laboratory of our atmosphere.

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Photo-Nucleation in Britain
Aitken, 1894

• On cloudy days the nuclei count remained low
• The number increased with sunshine, in proportion
  to the sunshine which occur during anticyclonic
  conditions.
• Sunshine may produce some change in the
  constituents of the atmosphere which gives rise
  to nuclei formation in saturated air.
• The high nuclei days were not hazy which suggests
  that the nuclei were of molecular dimensions

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On Aerosol Sources and Removal
Aitken, 1894

• Densely-inhabited areas lose their purity.
  Purifying areas of the world are those regions
  that lose more impurity than they gain.
• Fine particle hardly settle. The deposition of
  vapor on these particles seems to be the method
  adopted by nature for cleansing them away.
• Hence cloudy and rainy regions are the most
  purifying

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Nuclei-Visibility Relationship
Aitken, 1894

• It has been the custom to record the limit of
  visibility.
• Observations on rainy days were discarded
  (Kingairloch)
• The data were classified according to humidity
• The amount of haze was proportional to the number
  of particles
• Hence (Nuclei x Visual Range) Cont.
• In dry air C is 2x the the value for moist air

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Establishing Source-Receptor Relationship
Egen, 1828
Temporal Trend
Smell composition
Direct Evidence
Decay with Distance
Trajectory
Wind Direction
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Aerosol Light ScatteringAn Example of Evolving
Science

• Brucke (1853) Aerosol is a turbid medium of
  suspended particle blue is scattered more than
  red light the size influences the color of
  scattering for both transparent and opaque
  particles.
• Tyndall (1867?) Laboratory experiments with
  condensation aerosols mimic the optical
  properties of atmospheric aerosols.
• Rayleigh (1871) Theory of air scattering is
  derived from electromagnetic theory.
• Pertner (1901) Experimetally verified the theory
  

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Learning from History

• Throughout the past 200 years atmospheric aerosol
  science has accumulated a rich history
• R. C. Ward (1914) So impossible is to keep our
  heads above the rising tide of the new
  meteorological literature that we are neglecting,
  to our loss, the rich stores which lie buried in
  the books of a generation ago.
• N. Kempf (1914) Early researchers on regional
  haze paid little attention to the past theories -
  possibly due to the fact that they were not as
  easily accessible as today

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Atmospheric Aerosols (Dust)From Geology to
Meteorology
Editor, Mo. Weather Rev. Jul 1990

• During the mid 1800s, dust was of interest more
  to the geologists than to meteorologists.
• By the late 1800s meteorologists recognized that
  aerosols are essential parts of the atmosphere.
• The presence of dust facilitates rain and snow
  formation
• Influences the visible and thermal radiation.
• Hence, air composition should include gaseous and
  aerosols

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1700-1900 From Enlightenment to Modern Science

• 1700 - 1800 Era of Enlightenment. Emergence of
  naturalists, architects, engineers, geographers
  and many new ideas, good and poor.
• 1800-1850 Focus was on the origin of haze
  aerosols. The era was a transition form
  theory-driven to observation-based atmospheric
  aerosol science
• 1850-1900 Consolidation of the theories of haze
  origin and focus on the physical laws that govern
  the behavior of atmospheric aerosols.