scholarly journals Molecular Characterization of Brown Carbon in Biomass Burning Aerosol Particles

2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (21) ◽  
pp. 11815-11824 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Lin ◽  
Paige K. Aiona ◽  
Ying Li ◽  
Manabu Shiraiwa ◽  
Julia Laskin ◽  
...  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (15) ◽  
pp. 9549-9561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rudra P. Pokhrel ◽  
Nick L. Wagner ◽  
Justin M. Langridge ◽  
Daniel A. Lack ◽  
Thilina Jayarathne ◽  
...  

Abstract. Single-scattering albedo (SSA) and absorption Ångström exponent (AAE) are two critical parameters in determining the impact of absorbing aerosol on the Earth's radiative balance. Aerosol emitted by biomass burning represent a significant fraction of absorbing aerosol globally, but it remains difficult to accurately predict SSA and AAE for biomass burning aerosol. Black carbon (BC), brown carbon (BrC), and non-absorbing coatings all make substantial contributions to the absorption coefficient of biomass burning aerosol. SSA and AAE cannot be directly predicted based on fuel type because they depend strongly on burn conditions. It has been suggested that SSA can be effectively parameterized via the modified combustion efficiency (MCE) of a biomass burning event and that this would be useful because emission factors for CO and CO2, from which MCE can be calculated, are available for a large number of fuels. Here we demonstrate, with data from the FLAME-4 experiment, that for a wide variety of globally relevant biomass fuels, over a range of combustion conditions, parameterizations of SSA and AAE based on the elemental carbon (EC) to organic carbon (OC) mass ratio are quantitatively superior to parameterizations based on MCE. We show that the EC ∕ OC ratio and the ratio of EC ∕ (EC + OC) both have significantly better correlations with SSA than MCE. Furthermore, the relationship of EC ∕ (EC + OC) with SSA is linear. These improved parameterizations are significant because, similar to MCE, emission factors for EC (or black carbon) and OC are available for a wide range of biomass fuels. Fitting SSA with MCE yields correlation coefficients (Pearson's r) of  ∼  0.65 at the visible wavelengths of 405, 532, and 660 nm while fitting SSA with EC / OC or EC / (EC + OC) yields a Pearson's r of 0.94–0.97 at these same wavelengths. The strong correlation coefficient at 405 nm (r =  0.97) suggests that parameterizations based on EC / OC or EC / (EC + OC) have good predictive capabilities even for fuels in which brown carbon absorption is significant. Notably, these parameterizations are effective for emissions from Indonesian peat, which have very little black carbon but significant brown carbon (SSA  =  0.990 ± 0.001 at 532 and 660 nm, SSA  =  0.937 ± 0.011 at 405 nm). Finally, we demonstrate that our parameterization based on EC / (EC + OC) accurately predicts SSA during the first few hours of plume aging with data from Yokelson et al. (2009) gathered during a biomass burning event in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 2843-2861 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. R. Freitas ◽  
K. M. Longo ◽  
M. A. F. Silva Dias ◽  
R. Chatfield ◽  
P. Silva Dias ◽  
...  

Abstract. We introduce the Coupled Aerosol and Tracer Transport model to the Brazilian developments on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (CATT-BRAMS). CATT-BRAMS is an on-line transport model fully consistent with the simulated atmospheric dynamics. Emission sources from biomass burning and urban-industrial-vehicular activities for trace gases and from biomass burning aerosol particles are obtained from several published datasets and remote sensing information. The tracer and aerosol mass concentration prognostics include the effects of sub-grid scale turbulence in the planetary boundary layer, convective transport by shallow and deep moist convection, wet and dry deposition, and plume rise associated with vegetation fires in addition to the grid scale transport. The radiation parameterization takes into account the interaction between the simulated biomass burning aerosol particles and short and long wave radiation. The atmospheric model BRAMS is based on the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), with several improvements associated with cumulus convection representation, soil moisture initialization and surface scheme tuned for the tropics, among others. In this paper the CATT-BRAMS model is used to simulate carbon monoxide and particulate material (PM2.5) surface fluxes and atmospheric transport during the 2002 LBA field campaigns, conducted during the transition from the dry to wet season in the southwest Amazon Basin. Model evaluation is addressed with comparisons between model results and near surface, radiosondes and airborne measurements performed during the field campaign, as well as remote sensing derived products. We show the matching of emissions strengths to observed carbon monoxide in the LBA campaign. A relatively good comparison to the MOPITT data, in spite of the fact that MOPITT a priori assumptions imply several difficulties, is also obtained.


2004 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. S1165-S1166 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. ŽEROMSKIENE ◽  
A. WIEDENSOHLER ◽  
A. MASSLING ◽  
O. SCHMID ◽  
R.S. PARMAR ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Konovalov ◽  
Nikolai Golovushkin ◽  
Matthias Beekmann ◽  
Valerii Kozlov

<p>Wildfires in Siberia are a major source of aerosol in Northern Eurasia. Biomass burning (BB) aerosol can significantly impact the Earth’s radiative balance through absorption and scattering of solar radiation, interactions with clouds and changes of surface albedo due to deposition of black and brown carbon on ice and snow. There is growing evidence that atmospheric aging of BB aerosol can be associated with profound but diverse chemical and physical transformations which, in most cases, are not adequately represented in chemistry-transport and climate models that are widely used in assessments of radiative and climate effects of atmospheric pollutants.</p><p>An idea of this study is to identify changes in the optical properties of aging BB aerosol using absorption and extinction aerosol optical depths (AAOD and AOD) retrieved from the OMI and MODIS satellite observations and to elucidate key processes behind these changes using the Mie-theory-based calculations along with simulations with chemistry-transport and microphysical box models involving representation of the evolution of organic particulate matter within the VBS framework. The study focuses on a major outflow of BB plumes from Siberia into the European part of Russia in July 2016. The analysis of the satellite data is complemented by the original results of biomass burning aerosol aging experiments in a large aerosol chamber. </p><p>The results indicate that the BB aerosol evolution during the first 10-20 hours features strong secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation resulting in a substantial increase in the particle single scattering albedo. Further evolution is affected by the loss of organic matter, probably due to evaporation and oxidation. The results also indicate that although brown carbon contained in the primary aerosol is rapidly lost (consistently with available independent observations) due to evaporation and photochemical destruction of chromospheres, it is partly replaced by weakly absorbing low-volatile SOA.</p><p>In general, this study reveals that aging BB aerosol from wildfires in Siberia undergoes major physical and chemical transformations that have to be taken into account in assessments of the impact of Siberian fires on the radiative balance in Northern Eurasia and the Arctic. It also proposes a practical way to address these complex transformations in chemistry-transport and climate models.</p><p>The study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant agreement No. 19-77-20109).</p><p>References</p><ol><li>Konovalov, I.B., Beekmann, M., Berezin, E.V., Formenti, P., and Andreae, M.O.: Probing into the aging dynamics of biomass burning aerosol by using satellite measurements of aerosol optical depth and carbon monoxide, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 4513–4537, 2017.</li> <li>Konovalov, I.B., Lvova, D.A., Beekmann, M., Jethva, H., Mikhailov, E.F., Paris, J.-D., Belan, B.D., Kozlov, V.S., Ciais, P., and Andreae, M.O.: Estimation of black carbon emissions from Siberian fires using satellite observations of absorption and extinction optical depths, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 14889–14924, 2018.</li> <li>Konovalov, I.B., Beekmann, M., Golovushkin, N.A., and Andreae, M.O.: Nonlinear behavior of organic aerosol in biomass burning plumes: a microphysical model analysis, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 12091–12119, 2019.</li> </ol>


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 1395-1405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunlin Li ◽  
Quanfu He ◽  
Anusha Priyadarshani Silva Hettiyadura ◽  
Uwe Käfer ◽  
Guy Shmul ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 51 (6) ◽  
pp. 3128-3137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Di Lorenzo ◽  
Rebecca A. Washenfelder ◽  
Alexis R. Attwood ◽  
Hongyu Guo ◽  
Lu Xu ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 122 (10) ◽  
pp. 5441-5456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nir Bluvshtein ◽  
Peng Lin ◽  
J. Michel Flores ◽  
Lior Segev ◽  
Yinon Mazar ◽  
...  

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