The Bubble Interfacial Microlayer Sampler (BIMS) was used in the North Atlantic to determine the enrichment factors, relative to sodium and the ocean (EFsea), for a series of trace metals on bubble‐derived atmospheric sea salt particles. No enrichment was found for K and Mg within the analytical precision of ±10%. Mean EFsea values determined for Al, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, V, and Zn ranged from 10 to 20,000. Positive correlations were found between bubble generation depth and the EFsea values for Fe, Pb, Sc, and Zn. Estimates suggest that the ocean is the primary global source of atmospheric K and Mg, that it is potentially a nontrivial (5–20% of the total) source of atmospheric Cu, V, and possibly Zn, and that it is an insignificant source of Al, Co, Fe, Mn, Pb, and Sc. In the remote North Pacific, during certain periods of the year, the ocean may be the primary source for all these elements present on aerosol particles with diameters greater than ∼3 μm.

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The tropospheric burden of arsenic has been estimated from representative global surface concentrations and an estimated small particle tropospheric scale height of 3.9 km to be ∼8×108 g As. Total atmospheric arsenic emissions from both natural and anthropogenic sources have been estimated to be 31×109 g As/yr. On a global basis the major source of atmospheric arsenic appears to be from anthropogenic volatilization processes, and the major natural sources of arsenic appear to be volcanoes and the terrestrial biosphere. Total atmospheric arsenic removal is estimated to be 30–50×109 g As/yr. The global tropospheric residence time of arsenic appears to be about 9 days.

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