Little is known about the optical significance of light absorbing particulate organic compounds (i.e., brown carbon, BrC), including the importance relative to black carbon (BC) and influence on ...direct radiative forcing by aerosols. The vertical profile of BrC affects its radiative forcing, yet the distribution of BrC in the free troposphere is largely unknown. In this study, BrC absorption was directly measured in solvent extracts of particulate filters obtained from aircraft sampling over the continental USA. Excluding biomass burning plumes, BrC was observed throughout the tropospheric column (<13 km), and its prevalence increased relative to BC with increasing altitude, indicating contributions from secondary sources. Closure analysis showed good agreement between light absorption from BC plus BrC relative to measured total aerosol absorption. A radiative transfer model indicated that BrC absorption reduced top of atmosphere aerosol forcing by ~20%, suggesting that it is an important component of direct aerosol radiative forcing.
Key Points
BrC is prevalent in the troposphere and increases relative to BC with altitude
Optical closure is obtained between BrC plus BC and total absorption at 365nm
BrC contributes 20% to top of atmosphere absorbing aerosol forcing
Evolution of brown carbon in wildfire plumes Forrister, Haviland; Liu, Jiumeng; Scheuer, Eric ...
Geophysical research letters,
16 June 2015, Volume:
42, Issue:
11
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Particulate brown carbon (BrC) in the atmosphere absorbs light at subvisible wavelengths and has poorly constrained but potentially large climate forcing impacts. BrC from biomass burning has ...virtually unknown lifecycle and atmospheric stability. Here, BrC emitted from intense wildfires was measured in plumes transported over 2 days from two main fires, during the 2013 NASA SEAC4RS mission. Concurrent measurements of organic aerosol (OA) and black carbon (BC) mass concentration, BC coating thickness, absorption Ångström exponent, and OA oxidation state reveal that the initial BrC emitted from the fires was largely unstable. Using back trajectories to estimate the transport time indicates that BrC aerosol light absorption decayed in the plumes with a half‐life of 9 to 15 h, measured over day and night. Although most BrC was lost within a day, possibly through chemical loss and/or evaporation, the remaining persistent fraction likely determines the background BrC levels most relevant for climate forcing.
Key Points
Biomass burning brown carbon has unknown lifecycle and atmospheric stability
Brown carbon and aerosol properties from two fires are measured for 50 h
Wildfire brown carbon lifetime was 9–15 h, but a small fraction is stable
Organic aerosol (OA) is an important fraction of submicron aerosols. However,
it is challenging to predict and attribute the specific organic compounds and
sources that lead to observed OA loadings, ...largely due to contributions from
secondary production. This is especially true for megacities surrounded by
numerous regional sources that create an OA background. Here, we utilize
in situ gas and aerosol observations collected on board the NASA DC-8 during
the NASA–NIER KORUS-AQ (Korea–United States Air Quality) campaign to
investigate the sources and hydrocarbon precursors that led to the secondary
OA (SOA) production observed over Seoul. First, we investigate the
contribution of transported OA to total loadings observed over Seoul by
using observations over the Yellow Sea coupled to FLEXPART Lagrangian
simulations. During KORUS-AQ, the average OA loading advected into Seoul was
∼1–3 µg sm−3. Second, taking this background into
account, the dilution-corrected SOA concentration observed over Seoul was
∼140 µgsm-3ppmv-1 at 0.5 equivalent photochemical
days. This value is at the high end of what has been observed in other
megacities around the world (20–70 µgsm-3ppmv-1 at 0.5
equivalent days). For the average OA concentration observed over Seoul
(13 µg sm−3), it is clear that production of SOA from locally
emitted precursors is the major source in the region. The importance
of local SOA production was supported by the following observations.
(1) FLEXPART source contribution calculations indicate any
hydrocarbons with a lifetime of less than 1 day, which are shown to dominate the
observed SOA production, mainly originate from South Korea. (2) SOA
correlated strongly with other secondary photochemical species, including
short-lived species (formaldehyde, peroxy acetyl nitrate, sum of acyl peroxy
nitrates, dihydroxytoluene, and nitrate aerosol). (3) Results from
an airborne oxidation flow reactor (OFR), flown for the first time, show a
factor of 4.5 increase in potential SOA concentrations over Seoul versus over
the Yellow Sea, a region where background air masses that are advected into
Seoul can be measured. (4) Box model simulations reproduce SOA
observed over Seoul within 11 % on average and suggest that short-lived
hydrocarbons (i.e., xylenes, trimethylbenzenes, and semi-volatile and intermediate-volatility compounds) were the main SOA precursors over Seoul. Toluene
alone contributes 9 % of the modeled SOA over Seoul. Finally, along with
these results, we use the metric ΔOA/ΔCO2 to
examine the amount of OA produced per fuel consumed in a megacity, which
shows less variability across the world than ΔOA∕ΔCO.
We evaluate the sensitivity of the size calibrations of
two commercially available, high-resolution optical particle sizers to
changes in aerosol composition and complex refractive index (RI). The
...Droplet Measurement Technologies Ultra-High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (UHSAS) and the TSI, Inc. Laser Aerosol Spectrometer (LAS) are
two commonly used instruments for measuring the portion of the aerosol size
distribution with diameters larger than nominally 60–90 nm. Both instruments
illuminate particles with a laser and relate the single-particle light
scattering intensity and count rate measured over a wide range of angles to
the size-dependent particle concentration. While the optical block geometry
and flow system are similar for each instrument, a significant difference
between the two models is the laser wavelength (1054 nm for the UHSAS and
633 nm for the LAS) and intensity (about 100 times higher for the UHSAS), which
may affect the way each instrument sizes non-spherical or absorbing
aerosols. Here, we challenge the UHSAS and LAS with laboratory-generated,
mobility-size-classified aerosols of known chemical composition to quantify
changes in the optical size response relative to that of ammonium sulfate
(RI of 1.52+0i at 532 nm) and NIST-traceable polystyrene latex spheres
(PSLs with RI of 1.59+0i at 589 nm). Aerosol inorganic salt species are
chosen to cover the real refractive index range of 1.32 to 1.78, while
chosen light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols include fullerene soot,
nigrosine dye, humic acid, and fulvic acid standards. The instrument
response is generally in good agreement with the electrical mobility
diameter. However, large undersizing deviations are observed for the
low-refractive-index fluoride salts and the strongly absorbing nigrosine dye and fullerene soot particles. Polydisperse size distributions for both fresh
and aged wildfire smoke aerosols from the recent Fire Influence on Regional
to Global Environments Experiment and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) and the Cloud,
Aerosol, and Monsoon Processes Philippines Experiment (CAMP2Ex)
airborne campaigns show good agreement between both optical sizers and
contemporaneous electrical mobility sizing and particle time-of-flight mass
spectrometric measurements. We assess the instrument uncertainties by
interpolating the laboratory response curves using previously reported RIs
and size distributions for multiple aerosol type classifications. These
results suggest that, while the optical sizers may underperform for strongly
absorbing laboratory compounds and fresh tailpipe emissions measurements,
sampling aerosols within the atmospherically relevant range of refractive
indices are likely to be sized to better than ±10 %–20 % uncertainty over the submicron aerosol size range when using instruments calibrated with
ammonium sulfate.
Single-particle mass spectrometry (SPMS) instruments
characterize the composition of individual aerosol particles in real time.
Their fundamental ability to differentiate the externally mixed ...particle
types that constitute the atmospheric aerosol population enables a unique
perspective into sources and transformation. However, quantitative
measurements by SPMS systems are inherently problematic. We introduce a new
technique that combines collocated measurements of aerosol composition by
SPMS and size-resolved absolute particle concentrations on aircraft
platforms. Quantitative number, surface area, volume, and mass
concentrations are derived for climate-relevant particle types such as
mineral dust, sea salt, and biomass burning smoke. Additionally, relative
ion signals are calibrated to derive mass concentrations of internally mixed
sulfate and organic material that are distributed across multiple particle
types. The NOAA Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry (PALMS) instrument
measures size-resolved aerosol chemical composition from aircraft. We
describe the identification and quantification of nine major atmospheric
particle classes, including sulfate–organic–nitrate mixtures, biomass
burning, elemental carbon, sea salt, mineral dust, meteoric material, alkali
salts, heavy fuel oil combustion, and a remainder class. Classes can be
sub-divided as necessary based on chemical heterogeneity, accumulated
secondary material during aging, or other atmospheric processing.
Concentrations are derived for sizes that encompass the accumulation and
coarse size modes. A statistical error analysis indicates that particle
class concentrations can be determined within a few minutes for abundances
above ∼10 ng m−3. Rare particle types require longer
sampling times. We explore the instrumentation requirements and the limitations of the
method for airborne measurements. Reducing the size resolution of the
particle data increases time resolution with only a modest increase in
uncertainty. The principal limiting factor to fast time response
concentration measurements is statistically relevant sampling across the
size range of interest, in particular, sizes D < 0.2 µm for
accumulation-mode studies and D > 2 µm for coarse-mode
analysis. Performance is compared to other airborne and ground-based
composition measurements, and examples of atmospheric mineral dust
concentrations are given. The wealth of information afforded by
composition-resolved size distributions for all major aerosol types
represents a new and powerful tool to characterize atmospheric aerosol
properties in a quantitative fashion.
Aviation-related aerosol emissions contribute to the formation of contrail cirrus clouds that can alter upper tropospheric radiation and water budgets, and therefore climate. The magnitude of ...air-traffic-related aerosol-cloud interactions and the ways in which these interactions might change in the future remain uncertain. Modelling studies of the present and future effects of aviation on climate require detailed information about the number of aerosol particles emitted per kilogram of fuel burned and the microphysical properties of those aerosols that are relevant for cloud formation. However, previous observational data at cruise altitudes are sparse for engines burning conventional fuels, and no data have previously been reported for biofuel use in-flight. Here we report observations from research aircraft that sampled the exhaust of engines onboard a NASA DC-8 aircraft as they burned conventional Jet A fuel and a 50:50 (by volume) blend of Jet A fuel and a biofuel derived from Camelina oil. We show that, compared to using conventional fuels, biofuel blending reduces particle number and mass emissions immediately behind the aircraft by 50 to 70 per cent. Our observations quantify the impact of biofuel blending on aerosol emissions at cruise conditions and provide key microphysical parameters, which will be useful to assess the potential of biofuel use in aviation as a viable strategy to mitigate climate change.
An instrumented NASA P-3B aircraft was used for airborne sampling of trace gases in a plume that had emanated from a small forest understory fire in Georgia, USA. The plume was sampled at its origin ...to derive emission factors and followed ∼ 13.6 km downwind to observe chemical changes during the first hour of atmospheric aging. The P-3B payload included a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS), which measured non-methane organic gases (NMOGs) at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution (10 m spatial/0.1 s temporal). Quantitative emission data are reported for CO2, CO, NO, NO2, HONO, NH3, and 16 NMOGs (formaldehyde, methanol, acetonitrile, propene, acetaldehyde, formic acid, acetone plus its isomer propanal, acetic acid plus its isomer glycolaldehyde, furan, isoprene plus isomeric pentadienes and cyclopentene, methyl vinyl ketone plus its isomers crotonaldehyde and methacrolein, methylglyoxal, hydroxy acetone plus its isomers methyl acetate and propionic acid, benzene, 2,3-butanedione, and 2-furfural) with molar emission ratios relative to CO larger than 1 ppbV ppmV−1. Formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, 2-furfural, and methanol dominated NMOG emissions. No NMOGs with more than 10 carbon atoms were observed at mixing ratios larger than 50 pptV ppmV−1 CO. Downwind plume chemistry was investigated using the observations and a 0-D photochemical box model simulation. The model was run on a nearly explicit chemical mechanism (MCM v3.3) and initialized with measured emission data. Ozone formation during the first hour of atmospheric aging was well captured by the model, with carbonyls (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, 2,3-butanedione, methylglyoxal, 2-furfural) in addition to CO and CH4 being the main drivers of peroxy radical chemistry. The model also accurately reproduced the sequestration of NOx into peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and the OH-initiated degradation of furan and 2-furfural at an average OH concentration of 7.45 ± 1.07 × 106 cm−3 in the plume. Formaldehyde, acetone/propanal, acetic acid/glycolaldehyde, and maleic acid/maleic anhydride (tentatively identified) were found to be the main NMOGs to increase during 1 h of atmospheric plume processing, with the model being unable to capture the observed increase. A mass balance analysis suggests that about 50 % of the aerosol mass formed in the downwind plume is organic in nature.
Due to their fast evolution and large natural variability in macro- and microphysical properties, the accurate representation of boundary layer clouds in current climate models remains a challenge. ...One of the regions with large intermodel spread in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 ensemble is the western North Atlantic Ocean. Here, statistically representative in situ measurements can help to develop and constrain the parameterization of clouds in global models. To this end, we performed comprehensive measurements of boundary layer clouds, aerosol, trace gases, and radiation in the western North Atlantic Ocean during the NASA Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) mission. In total, 174 research flights with 574 flight hours for cloud and precipitation measurements were performed with the HU-25 Falcon during three winter (February–March 2020, January–April 2021, and November 2021–March 2022) and three summer seasons (August–September 2020, May–June 2021, and May–June 2022). Here we present a statistical evaluation of 16 140 individual cloud events probed by the fast cloud droplet probe and the two-dimensional stereo cloud probe during 155 research flights in a representative and repetitive flight strategy allowing for robust statistical data analyses. We show that the vertical profiles of distributions of the liquid water content and the cloud droplet effective diameter (ED) increase with altitude in the marine boundary layer. Due to higher updraft speeds, higher cloud droplet number concentrations (Nliquid) were measured in winter compared to summer despite lower cloud condensation nucleus abundance. Flight cloud cover derived from statistical analysis of in situ data is reduced in summer and shows large variability. This seasonal contrast in cloud coverage is consistent with a dominance of a synoptic pattern in winter that favors conditions for the formation of stratiform clouds at the western edge of cyclones (post-cyclonic). In contrast, a dominant summer anticyclone is concomitant with the occurrence of shallow cumulus clouds and lower cloud coverage. The evaluation of boundary layer clouds and precipitation in the Nliquid ED phase space sheds light on liquid, mixed-phase, and ice cloud properties and helps to categorize the cloud data. Ice and liquid precipitation, often masked in cloud statistics by a high abundance of liquid clouds, is often observed throughout the cloud. The ACTIVATE in situ cloud measurements provide a wealth of cloud information useful for assessing airborne and satellite remote-sensing products, for global climate and weather model evaluations, and for dedicated process studies that address precipitation and aerosol–cloud interactions.
The NASA North Atlantic Aerosols and Marine Ecosystems Study (NAAMES) ship
and aircraft field campaign deployed to the western subarctic Atlantic
between the years 2015 and 2018. One of the primary ...goals of NAAMES is to
improve the understanding of aerosol–cloud interaction (ACI) over the
Atlantic Ocean under different seasonal regimes. ACIs currently represent the
largest source of uncertainty in global climate models. During three NAAMES
field campaigns (NAAMES-1 in November 2015, NAAMES-2 in May 2016, and
NAAMES-3 in September 2017), multiple 10 h science flights were conducted
using the NASA C-130 aircraft to measure marine boundary layer aerosol and
cloud properties. The standard flight pattern includes vertical spirals
where the C-130 transitioned from high altitude to low altitude (and vice
versa), collecting in situ measurements of aerosols, trace gases, clouds, and
meteorological parameters as a function of altitude. We examine the data
collected from 37 spirals during the three NAAMES field campaigns, and we
present a comprehensive characterization of the vertical profiles of aerosol
properties under different synoptic conditions and aerosol regimes. The
vertical distribution of submicron aerosol particles exhibited strong
seasonal variation, as well as elevated intra-seasonal variability depending
on emission sources and aerosol processes in the atmospheric column.
Pristine marine conditions and new particle formation were prevalent in the
wintertime (NAAMES-1) due to low biogenic emissions from the surface ocean
and reduced continental influence. Higher concentrations of submicron
aerosol particles were observed in the spring (NAAMES-2) due to strong
phytoplankton activity and the arrival of long-range-transported continental
plumes in the free troposphere with subsequent entrainment into the marine
boundary layer. Biomass burning from boreal wildfires was the main source of
aerosol particles in the region during the late summer (NAAMES-3) in both
the marine boundary layer and free troposphere.
Although the characteristics of biomass burning events and the ambient ecosystem determine emitted smoke composition, the conditions that modulate the partitioning of black carbon (BC) and brown ...carbon (BrC) formation are not well understood, nor are the spatial or temporal frequency of factors driving smoke particle evolution, such as hydration, coagulation, and oxidation, all of which impact smoke radiative forcing. In situ data from surface observation sites and aircraft field campaigns offer deep insight into the optical, chemical, and microphysical traits of biomass burning (BB) smoke aerosols, such as single scattering albedo (SSA) and size distribution, but cannot by themselves provide robust statistical characterization of both emitted and evolved particles. Data from the NASA Earth Observing System’s Multi-Angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument can provide at least a partial picture of BB particle properties and their evolution downwind, once properly validated. Here we use in situ data from the joint NOAA/NASA 2019 Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments Experiment-Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) field campaign to assess the strengths and limitations of MISR-derived constraints on particle size, shape, light-absorption, and its spectral slope, as well as plume height and associated wind vectors. Based on the satellite observations, we also offer inferences about aging mechanisms effecting downwind particle evolution, such as gravitational settling, oxidation, secondary particle formation, and the combination of particle aggregation and condensational growth. This work builds upon our previous study, adding confidence to our interpretation of the remote-sensing data based on an expanded suite of in situ measurements for validation. The satellite and in situ measurements offer similar characterizations of particle property evolution as a function of smoke age for the 06 August Williams Flats Fire, and most of the key differences in particle size and absorption can be attributed to differences in sampling and changes in the plume geometry between sampling times. Whereas the aircraft data provide validation for the MISR retrievals, the satellite data offer a spatially continuous mapping of particle properties over the plume, which helps identify trends in particle property downwind evolution that are ambiguous in the sparsely sampled aircraft transects. The MISR data record is more than two decades long, offering future opportunities to study regional wildfire plume behavior statistically, where aircraft data are limited or entirely lacking.
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