Abstract
Aerial observations of atmospheric pollutants were carried out over the seas between Japan and the Asian continent as well as over the coastal region of China. The data of ammonium to sulfate ratio were compared with those taken at Fukue and Okinawa by use of AMS. Aerial observations of atmospheric pollutants over China and the East China Sea close to the continent revealed very high concentrations of sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium over there. It was shown that the concentration of sulfate was nearly equal to that of ammonium in China and over the East China Sea. This fact suggests that the aerosols over China were rich in sulfate and well neutralized with ammonia. Over the East China Sea, sulfate was in fine particles and still to be neutralized well with ammonia, whereas nitrate was present mainly in coarse particles. Ammonium to sulfate ratio became lower when the air mass was transported long range from the continent to the Pacific. This indicates that there is addition of sulfate (formation from gaseous SO2) within the air mass whereas only removal processes exist for ammonia gas during the transport.
