Sixty-year trends in sulphur dioxide emissions from anthropogenic ground-based sources in Antarctica

Abstract Knowledge of trends of pollutants released into the environment is very important for interpreting the observed trends in pollution of natural environments and forecasting their development. This article reconstructs for the first time a series of sulphur dioxide emissions from the main categories of land-based sources of emissions in Antarctica (diesel generators, heating systems, vehicles and waste incineration) over 60 years: from the beginning of the intensive construction of scientific stations in 1960 until 2019. The trends in the sulphur content of fuels and the dynamics of fuel consumption by the main categories of emission sources are taken into account. According to the estimates obtained, total emissions of sulphur dioxide in Antarctica varied in the range of 28.6–161.3 tons. This paper establishes that the greatest levels of sulphur dioxide emissions occurred in the late 1980s–beginning of the 1990s. In subsequent years, there was a rapid reduction in emissions, primarily due to a reduction of the sulphur content of fuels. The rates of reduction of sulphur dioxide emissions for different areas of Antarctica are also shown.