Latitudinal gradients of snow contamination in the Rocky Mountains associated with anthropogenic pollutant sources

Seasonal snow is an important source of drinking water, recreation, and agriculture in the Rocky Mountain region. Monitoring snow-water quality is important to assess potential impacts to downstream water resources, impacts to the albedo and energy balance of the snowpack, and assessing sources of natural and anthropogenic aerosols and gases.  Here, a suite of metals were measured from seasonal snowpack from water year (WY) 2018. Calcium, lanthanum, and cerium concentrations support the importance of mineral dust to the southern Rocky Mountains. Mercury (Hg), zinc (Zn), and cadmium (Cd) concentrations show a similar spatial pattern to mineral dust, whereas antimony (Sb) concentrations are highest in the northern Rocky Mountains. Using enrichment factors to adjust for the contributions from mineral dust, it was demonstrated the pollution fraction of Hg, Zn, Sb and Cd was greater in the northern Rocky Mountains. These observations were compared to spatial trends of the pollution fraction ..., Samples analyzed for this study consisted of integrated snowpack samples collected during the spring of WY2018. Samples were collected near peak accumulation, but prior to snowmelt conditions (Ingersoll et al., 2009). Snowpits were dug to the ground and one depth-integrated sample was collected from a clean face of the snowpit. For DRI metal analysis, 49 sites were sampled. One depth-integrated sample was collected using plastic scoops that were  pre-cleaned with 1% nitric acid (HNO3) and rinsed with ultrapure water. Samples were stored in Whirl-Pak bags and kept frozen until analysis. 
At DRI, samples were kept frozen until sample preparation, when they were melted in Whirl-Paks and sonicated for 3 minutes. Samples were then poured into pre-cleaned (1% nitric acid washed), metal-free, 15 mL vials that were pre-rinsed with ultrapure water and dried. Snow samples were then acidified to 1% HNO3 and stored for three months to allow for acid leaching of all elements in the sample (Arienzo e..., , # Latitudinal gradients of snow contamination in the Rocky Mountains associated with anthropogenic pollutant sources

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qbzkh18tg](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.qbzkh18tg)

## Description of the data and file structure

Two datasets are available, concentrations of metals studied and HYPLIT results

### Files and variables

#### File: Concentrations.csv

**Description:** concentrations of metals measured via ICP-MS

##### Variables

* Station Name: This is the name of the sample location
* Latitude: decimal degree of sample location
* Longitude:decimal degree of sample location
* State: US state
* CO - Colorado
* ID - Idaho
* MT - Montana
* NM - New Mexico
* UT - Utah
* WY - Wyoming
* elevation: elevation in meters
* Cd: Cadmium concentration in ug/L
* Sb: Antimony concentration in ug/L
* La: Lanthanum concentration in ug/L
* Ce: Cerium concentration in ug/L
* Ca: Calcium concentration in ug/L
* Zn: Zinc concentration in ug/L

#### File: HYSPLIT\...