The PI proposes to determine the spatial and temporal variation of the chemical content of snow and ice in central Asia in order to improve our understanding of the distribution of chemical species in the atmosphere in this region, and their variation over space and time. He plans to collect snow and ice samples within the accumulation areas of eight to ten different central Asian glaciers from snowpits six meters deep and ice cores drilled up to twenty meters. The samples will be analyzed for chloride, sulfate, nitrate, phosphate, bromide, fluoride, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, ammonium, iron, oxygen and hydrogen isotopes, 7Be, 210Pb, 137Cs, selected trace metals acetate, formate, methyl sulfonic acid, hydrogen peroxide, dissolved organic carbon, and microparticles.1
