Aerosol chemical composition (soluble major ions, soluble and total trace elements) at Carcass Island (51.268 S, 60.591 W) from September 2010 to March 2012.

Aerosol samples of total and soluble aluminium, cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, lead, thorium, titanium, vanadium, and zinc, total arsenic, barium, cerium, chromium, lanthanum, neodymium, phosphorus, antimony, and uranium, and calcium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, sodium, ammonium, nitrate, and sulfate ions, were collected from a small scaffolding tower in a field at the northern end of Carcass Island (51.268 S, 60.591 W). Samples were collected on Whatman 41 filters at 3 m above ground level from September 2010 to March in 2011 and 4.5 m above ground level from October 2011 to March 2012. Samples were returned to the University of East Anglia and they were analysed for their: soluble major ion content by ion chromatography following extraction into ultrapure water, soluble trace element content by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) following extraction into 1.1 M ammonium acetate solution, and total trace element content by ICP-MS and ICP-OES after microwave-assisted digestion with a mixture of concentrated nitric and hydrofluoric acids. Results are presented as atmospheric concentrations (moles per cubic metre of air) for each analyte. The aim was to characterise and quantify the suspended particulate matter that is transported through the atmosphere from southern South America to the South Atlantic and Southern Oceans, as part of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Discovery Science grant, Atmospheric fluxes of mineral dust-derived soluble trace elements to the ocean using thorium isotopes (ThorMap) (grant number NE/V001213/1) and grant, Ocean micronutrient cycles: UK GEOTRACES (grant number NE/H00548X/1).