A high-temperature volatility system has been deployed for the measurement of the composition and concentration of the accumulation mode aerosol (0.05 μm<r<1 μm) within the atmospheric boundary layer. This instrumentation comprises a volatility system based around a Particle Measuring Systems ASASP-X optical particle counter, which was operated together with an aethalometer for the direct observation of soot carbon concentrations. By cycling the heater tube through a range of temperatures from near ambient to over 1000 ¿C, size-differentiated information upon aerosol composition may be obtained. Furthermore, by careful selection of analysis temperatures, discrimination is possible between elemental carbon and the more volatile fractions of the soot carbon aerosol. Observations made over the North Sea near the Dutch coast and in the central United Kingdom are presented for differing environmental conditions with soot carbon concentrations ranging from about 100 to over 6000 ng m-3. For polluted conditions over the North Sea the volatility technique clearly showed the dominance of soot carbon particles over other aerosol components with a narrow carbon particle distribution of mode radius around 0.06 μm accounting for about 80% of all particles with radii below 0.1 μm. Under polluted conditions, only about 25% of the total soot carbon aerosol comprised elemental carbon (with the remainder consisting of more volatile material), whereas this proportion rose to around 50% in the lower carbon loadings found in a cleaner maritime air mass. The use of soot carbon loadings as a tracer of anthropogenic aerosol inputs to oceanic regions is explored on the basis of measurements from a NE Atlantic cruise. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1995