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210Po in savanna burning plumes

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Abstract

During the FOS-DECAFE experiment at Lamto (Ivory Coast) in January 1991 aerosols samples were collected at ground level above fires in order to investigate the possibility of using210Po as a tracer of biomass burning. The concentration of this radionuclide in plants is studied as a function of its content in soils and in the atmospheric background. It is shown that it depends strongly on the atmospheric content in210Po, due to dry deposition of the aerosols. The mean concentration of plants at Lamto is found to be about 4.4 pCi of210Po/gC during the fire season and falls down to less than 1pCi/gC outside this period. The budget of210Po is evaluated taking into account its complete volatilization during the flaming phase, the (210Po)ash/(210Po)plants ratio, which is measured to be about 14% and the percentage of submicron particles in the plume, about 91%. The inferred flux of210Po is 3850 Ci/yr for the African savanna, and 5800 Ci/yr for the global savanna. From this flux, fluxes of Ct and Cs are estimated to be 8.4 and 1.1 Tg of C/yr for the worldwide savanna.

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Le Cloarec, M.F., Ardouin, B., Cachier, H. et al. 210Po in savanna burning plumes. J Atmos Chem 22, 111–122 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00708184

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00708184

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