Summary
Coastal Antarctic sea salt aerosols are partitioned into two main sources, namely ocean sea spray and surface sea ice. The sea spray source is related to windiness over the surface ocean and the action of bubbles bursting. The sea ice source is due to frost flowers which form on the surface of sea ice, which are concentrated in sea salts and are lofted by wind action over the sea ice zone. At high accumulation coastal sites, with seasonal resolution, it is possible to estimate the sources of both using deviations of the sodium to sulphate ratio from that found in seawater. To date, from ice core records in east Antarctica (including iceberg B09B near the Mertz Glacier, Law Dome, Wilkes Land and Wilhelm II land), we have found that the source strength from surface sea ice to the Antarctic ice sheet diminishes with elevation and distance inland. We present new data from coastal ice core sites including Mill Island off the coast of east Antarctica and the upper and lower Totten glacier to the east of Law Dome. Using this combined dataset we estimate the source strengths of sea salt aerosols, their partitioning and quantify the relationship with elevation and distance inland.