-6-

TABLE 1.

Variation of Na and Mg aerosols and sea spray with distance from the
waterline (impingers, effectively at a 2 m height).

Distance
(m)

Mg
(U9 m-3)

(pgN;-3)

c

Calculated Sea Spray
(P9 m-3)
.
~c

3

56.2’

~ “

-

6.17

175

26

13.3

1.45

41

52

10.5

1.21

35

- 102

10.4

1.30

34

10.5

1.26

34

Background

(HV)

..

-.

as well, but it occurred in a surprisingly short range compared to sea spray aerosols measured by other investigators (2,5,6).
The rapid drop-off of sea
spray from the shoreline is thought to be due to the presence of a massive
vegetative barrier along the shore and we expect that the horizontal flux is
already reduced at the shore because the sea spray is mostly generated at the
surf line on the coral reef nearly a kilometer upwind from the beach. The HV
measurements show that the background sea spray aerosol calculated from Na and
Mg concentrations was remarkably uniform throughout the remainder of the island
(X= 34ug m-3, S= 8.7, n= 27). The HV results are summarized in Table 2.
Background is here defined as the aerosol concentrations at the 1.1 m height
over surfaces which are relatively stabilized and under normal wind conditions.
After a week, even the bare soil tended to reach the same average level of dust
aerosol concentrations (21 ug m-3) as the coconut grove (Table 2). An analysis
of the personal dosimeter data (discussed later) showed that about 10% of the
239+240PU
concentration
(aCi/m3)
was a
background dust aerosol was organic.
factor of 258/60 = 4.3 greater over bare soil than in the coconut grove.
(Soil
activity was 15.3 and 8.01 pCi/g respectively, which is not significantly different
within the normal variation encountered. )
If we examine the vertical fluxes of plutonium (aCi m-2 s-l), the ratio of
fluxes from the two sites will be proportional to the ratio of their wind friction
velocities, u*, where:
u* = CD u~

$
.
- .*

[1]

and CD is a drag coefficient equal to 0.106 in the coconut grove and 0.077 in
the bare field as determined by our wind profile measurements and U1 is the wind
speed at the 1 m height, which was 4.1 x greater for the bare field than the
coconut grove. By Equation..l,.the.-rati,oof frjction velocities .is 3 x greater
-in-~he .bare..field-.thanin the coconut grove. ~he..rat.i.o--of_”ther.r
plutonium fluxes
.is..alsoproportional to.the..ratio of. theib concentrations; _lIeo,cfLs_.t!3e
plutoniu-~.
flux is._tif-acto.r’_ol.-!$~.3_x_.3_=...12.9
greater in the stabilized bare field tlian”-fn
—-—,------

.
.
.

L

Select target paragraph3