Department of Earth System Science

A three-dimensional chemical tracer model for the troposphere is used to simulate the global distribution of ⁸⁵Kr, a long-lived radioisotope released at northern mid-latitudes by nuclear industry. Simulated distributions for the period 1980–1983 are in excellent agreement with data from six latitudinal profiles measured over the Atlantic. High concentrations of ⁸⁵Kr are predicted over the Arctic in winter, advected from European sources, and somewhat smaller enhancements arising from the same sources are predicted over the tropical Atlantic in summer. Latitudinal gradients are steepest in the northern tropics, with distinctly different seasonal variations over the Pacific, as compared to the Atlantic. The global inventory of ⁸⁵Kr is reconstructed for the period 1980–1983 by combining the concentrations measured over the Atlantic with the global distributions predicted by the model. The magnitude of the Soviet source is derived. The interhemispheric exchange time is calculated as 1.1 years, with little seasonal dependence.