Website: http://www.atmosphericinterfaces2006.co.za

SESSION ON LONG-RANGE TRANSPORT AND CHEMICAL TRANSFORMATION

Transport, photochemical processing and physical removal determine the distribution and fate of atmospheric trace gases and aerosol particles, and thus their impacts on air quality and global climate. From the formation of smog ozone in the polluted urban boundary layer to the intercontinental transport of plumes lofted from industrial or biomass burning sources, highly variable meteorological and photochemical processes determine the timescales for scavenging, sedimentation and chemical loss of emitted pollutants. The importance of long-range transport of trace gases and aerosols is controlled by the competition between these stochastic loss processes and the transport and lifting processes. The interaction of lifting processes and heterogeneous loss is particularly poorly understood. This session focuses on advances in our understanding of all of these processes and their interactions based on observations (long-term, campaign and satellite measurements), model analysis (trajectory or chemical modeling), or a combination of these techniques. We particularly welcome papers that focus on the transport and removal of soluble species, and that allow deficiencies in our current understanding to be more readily identified. We also encourage papers that focus on the impacts of transport, chemistry and removal in Polar regions as an impetus for planning for atmospheric research during the coming International Polar Year.

- Oliver Wild, Andreas Stohl and David Parrish