Offshore Atmospheric Phosphine

摘要

In the summer of 1995, gaseous phosphine (PH_3) as a potential volatile participant in the atmospheric phosphorus cycle was observed for the first time in the lower troposphere close to the sea surface in the German Bight (North Sea). While the daytime concentration of atmospheric PH_3 remained at a low level of 41 pg m~(-3), the postmidnight concentration peaked at a value of 885 pg m~(-3) ( ± 30% rel.s.d.). Throughout the past century, PH_3 was considered to be solely an industrial product. Its existence on earth was believed to be uniquely extraterrestrial in origin, for example, meteoric schreiber-site (Fe_3P). Surprisingly enough, in 1968, Iverson detected biogenic iron phosphide (Fe_2P) generated by bacterial iron corrosion processes.