On the Characteristics of Aerosol Particles

Aerosol particles were collected at Rumoi, Hokkaido in the spring of 1995 and 1996 in order to analyze their size, shape and elemental compositions by the use of the SEM-EDX system. From the trajectory analysis of air mass which contained the aerosol particles, it was found that the particles were generated in the northern part of China and Mongolia. These particles were classified into three categories by their shape and elemental compositions: (1) The particles, which consisted of minerals such as gypsum, quartz and aluminosilicate; these particles had an irregular shape; (2) Sea salt particles having a square shape; (3) Mixed particles, which were combined with soil particles and sea salt particles: they made up 13.5 % of the total number of aerosol particles. 1