Articles | Volume 11, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-315-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-315-2018
© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
15 Jan 2018
Research article |
| 15 Jan 2018
| 15 Jan 2018
Calibration and assessment of electrochemical air quality sensors by co-location with regulatory-grade instruments
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Jonathan P. Franklin
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Lisa M. M. Wallace
Air Surveillance and Analysis Section, Hawaii State Department of Health, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
Benjamin D. Kocar
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Colette L. Heald
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Jesse H. Kroll
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
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Chenyang Bi, Jordan E. Krechmer, Graham O. Frazier, Wen Xu, Andrew T. Lambe, Megan S. Claflin, Brian M. Lerner, John T. Jayne, Douglas R. Worsnop, Manjula R. Canagaratna, and Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz
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Measurement techniques that can achieve molecular characterizations are necessary to understand the differences of fate and transport within isomers produced in the atmospheric oxidation process. In this work, we develop an instrument to conduct isomer-resolved measurements of particle-phase organics. We assess the number of isomers per chemical formula in atmospherically relevant samples and examine the feasibility of extending the use of an existing instrument to a broader range of analytes.
Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz and Bernard Aumont
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6541–6563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6541-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6541-2021, 2021
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Alexander Zaytsev, Martin Breitenlechner, Anna Novelli, Hendrik Fuchs, Daniel A. Knopf, Jesse H. Kroll, and Frank N. Keutsch
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Ruud H. H. Janssen, Colette L. Heald, Allison L. Steiner, Anne E. Perring, J. Alex Huffman, Ellis S. Robinson, Cynthia H. Twohy, and Luke D. Ziemba
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David H. Hagan and Jesse H. Kroll
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James F. Hurley, Nathan M. Kreisberg, Braden Stump, Chenyang Bi, Purushottam Kumar, Susanne V. Hering, Pat Keady, and Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4911–4925, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4911-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4911-2020, 2020
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Christopher D. Cappa, Christopher Y. Lim, David H. Hagan, Matthew Coggon, Abigail Koss, Kanako Sekimoto, Joost de Gouw, Timothy B. Onasch, Carsten Warneke, and Jesse H. Kroll
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8511–8532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8511-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8511-2020, 2020
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Katherine R. Travis, Colette L. Heald, Hannah M. Allen, Eric C. Apel, Stephen R. Arnold, Donald R. Blake, William H. Brune, Xin Chen, Róisín Commane, John D. Crounse, Bruce C. Daube, Glenn S. Diskin, James W. Elkins, Mathew J. Evans, Samuel R. Hall, Eric J. Hintsa, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Prasad S. Kasibhatla, Michelle J. Kim, Gan Luo, Kathryn McKain, Dylan B. Millet, Fred L. Moore, Jeffrey Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Tomás Sherwen, Alexander B. Thames, Kirk Ullmann, Xuan Wang, Paul O. Wennberg, Glenn M. Wolfe, and Fangqun Yu
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Atmospheric models overestimate the rate of removal of trace gases by the hydroxyl radical (OH). This is a concern for studies of the climate and air quality impacts of human activities. Here, we evaluate the performance of a commonly used model of atmospheric chemistry against data from the NASA Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) over the remote oceans where models have received little validation. The model is generally successful, suggesting that biases in OH may be a concern over land.
Sam J. Silva, Colette L. Heald, and Alex B. Guenther
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 2569–2585, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2569-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-2569-2020, 2020
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Sidhant J. Pai, Colette L. Heald, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Salvatore C. Farina, Eloise A. Marais, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Ann M. Middlebrook, Hugh Coe, John E. Shilling, Roya Bahreini, Justin H. Dingle, and Kennedy Vu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2637–2665, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2637-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2637-2020, 2020
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Aerosols in the atmosphere have significant health and climate impacts. Organic aerosol (OA) accounts for a large fraction of the total aerosol burden, but models have historically struggled to accurately simulate it. This study compares two very different OA model schemes and evaluates them against a suite of globally distributed airborne measurements with the goal of providing insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each approach across different environments.
Therese S. Carter, Colette L. Heald, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Yutaka Kondo, Nobuhiro Moteki, Joshua P. Schwarz, Christine Wiedinmyer, Anton S. Darmenov, Arlindo M. da Silva, and Johannes W. Kaiser
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2073–2097, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2073-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2073-2020, 2020
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Fires and the smoke they emit impact air quality, health, and climate, but the abundance and properties of smoke remain uncertain and poorly constrained. To explore this, we compare model simulations driven by four commonly-used fire emission inventories with surface, aloft, and satellite observations. We show that across inventories smoke emissions differ by factors of 4 to 7 over North America, challenging our ability to accurately characterize the impact of smoke on air quality and climate.
Crystal D. McClure, Christopher Y. Lim, David H. Hagan, Jesse H. Kroll, and Christopher D. Cappa
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1531–1547, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1531-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1531-2020, 2020
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We characterized various optical, chemical, and physical properties of particles produced from combustion of a variety of different biomass fuels, many representative of those found in the western US. We find that many properties scale with the ratio between bulk average organic aerosol and black carbon mass concentrations, although there are some properties that do not.
Abigail R. Koss, Manjula R. Canagaratna, Alexander Zaytsev, Jordan E. Krechmer, Martin Breitenlechner, Kevin J. Nihill, Christopher Y. Lim, James C. Rowe, Joseph R. Roscioli, Frank N. Keutsch, and Jesse H. Kroll
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1021–1041, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1021-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1021-2020, 2020
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Oxidation chemistry of organic compounds in the atmosphere produces a diverse spectrum of products. This diversity is difficult to represent in air quality and climate models, and in laboratory experiments it results in large and complex datasets. This work evaluates several methods to simplify the chemistry of oxidation systems in environmental chambers, including positive matrix factorization, hierarchical clustering analysis, and gamma kinetics parameterization.
Alexander Zaytsev, Abigail R. Koss, Martin Breitenlechner, Jordan E. Krechmer, Kevin J. Nihill, Christopher Y. Lim, James C. Rowe, Joshua L. Cox, Joshua Moss, Joseph R. Roscioli, Manjula R. Canagaratna, Douglas R. Worsnop, Jesse H. Kroll, and Frank N. Keutsch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 15117–15129, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15117-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15117-2019, 2019
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Aromatic hydrocarbons contribute significantly to the production of tropospheric ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Here later-generation low-volatility oxygenated products from toluene and 1,2,4-TMB oxidation by OH are detected in the gas and particle phases. We show that these products, previously identified as highly oxygenated molecules (HOMs), are formed in more than one pathway with differing numbers of reaction steps with OH. They also make up a significant fraction of SOA.
Matthew M. Coggon, Christopher Y. Lim, Abigail R. Koss, Kanako Sekimoto, Bin Yuan, Jessica B. Gilman, David H. Hagan, Vanessa Selimovic, Kyle J. Zarzana, Steven S. Brown, James M. Roberts, Markus Müller, Robert Yokelson, Armin Wisthaler, Jordan E. Krechmer, Jose L. Jimenez, Christopher Cappa, Jesse H. Kroll, Joost de Gouw, and Carsten Warneke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 14875–14899, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14875-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14875-2019, 2019
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Wildfire emissions significantly contribute to adverse air quality; however, the chemical processes that lead to hazardous pollutants, such as ozone, are not fully understood. In this study, we describe laboratory experiments where we simulate the atmospheric chemistry of smoke emitted from a range of biomass fuels. We show that certain understudied compounds, such as furans and phenolic compounds, are significant contributors to pollutants formed as a result of typical atmospheric oxidation.
Maria A. Zawadowicz, Karl D. Froyd, Anne E. Perring, Daniel M. Murphy, Dominick V. Spracklen, Colette L. Heald, Peter R. Buseck, and Daniel J. Cziczo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 13859–13870, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13859-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13859-2019, 2019
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We report measurements of small particles of biological origin (for example, fragments of bacteria, pollen, or fungal spores) in the atmosphere over the continental United States. We use a recently developed identification technique based on airborne mass spectrometry in conjunction with an extensive aircraft dataset. We show that biological particles are present at altitudes up to 10 km and we quantify typical concentrations.
William C. Porter and Colette L. Heald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 13367–13381, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13367-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13367-2019, 2019
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In this paper we explore the connection between changes in surface temperature and changes in ozone pollution. While explanations for this connection have been proposed in the past, we attempt to better quantify them using models and statistics. We find that some of the most commonly cited mechanisms, including biogenic emissions and temperature-dependent chemical processes, can explain less than half of the O3–T correlation. Meteorology is identified as the most likely driver for the remainder.
Christopher Y. Lim, David H. Hagan, Matthew M. Coggon, Abigail R. Koss, Kanako Sekimoto, Joost de Gouw, Carsten Warneke, Christopher D. Cappa, and Jesse H. Kroll
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 12797–12809, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12797-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12797-2019, 2019
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Wildfires are a large source of gases and particles to the atmosphere, both of which impact human health and climate. The amount and composition of particles from wildfires can change with time in the atmosphere; however, the impact of aging is not well understood. In a series of controlled laboratory experiments, we show that the particles are oxidized and a significant fraction of the gas-phase carbon (24 %–56 %) is converted to particle mass over the course of several days in the atmosphere.
Eleni Dovrou, Christopher Y. Lim, Manjula R. Canagaratna, Jesse H. Kroll, Douglas R. Worsnop, and Frank N. Keutsch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5303–5315, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5303-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5303-2019, 2019
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Measurement techniques commonly used to analyze particulate matter composition can result in the possible misidentification of sulfur-containing species, especially for the case of sulfate and hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS). The efficiency and limitations of these techniques, along with a method that enables further studies of the contribution of sulfur-containing species, S(IV) versus S(VI), to particulate matter under low-light atmospheric conditions, are described in this work.
Suzane S. de Sá, Luciana V. Rizzo, Brett B. Palm, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Lindsay D. Yee, Rebecca Wernis, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Joel Brito, Samara Carbone, Yingjun J. Liu, Arthur Sedlacek, Stephen Springston, Allen H. Goldstein, Henrique M. J. Barbosa, M. Lizabeth Alexander, Paulo Artaxo, Jose L. Jimenez, and Scot T. Martin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 7973–8001, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7973-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7973-2019, 2019
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This study investigates the impacts of urban and fire emissions on the concentration, composition, and optical properties of submicron particulate matter (PM1) in central Amazonia during the dry season. Biomass-burning and urban emissions appeared to contribute at least 80 % of brown carbon absorption while accounting for 30 % to 40 % of the organic PM1 mass concentration. Only a fraction of the 9-fold increase in mass concentration relative to the wet season was due to biomass burning.
Alexander Zaytsev, Martin Breitenlechner, Abigail R. Koss, Christopher Y. Lim, James C. Rowe, Jesse H. Kroll, and Frank N. Keutsch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1861–1870, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1861-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1861-2019, 2019
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We present the development of a chemical ionization mass spectrometer which can be operated with either ammonium (NH4+) or hydronium (H3O+) as the reagent ion. We describe a mass spectrometric voltage scanning procedure based on collision-induced dissociation that allows us to determine the stability of detected ammonium–organic ions and hence constrain the sensitivity of the instrument to a wide range of organic compounds that cannot be calibrated directly.
Rachel E. O'Brien, Kelsey J. Ridley, Manjula R. Canagaratna, John T. Jayne, Philip L. Croteau, Douglas R. Worsnop, Sri Hapsari Budisulistiorini, Jason D. Surratt, Christopher L. Follett, Daniel J. Repeta, and Jesse H. Kroll
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1659–1671, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1659-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1659-2019, 2019
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Analysis of the elemental composition of organic mixtures can provide insights into the sources and aging of environmental samples. Here we describe a method that allows characterization of this type of material using micrograms of material by a combination of a small-volume ultrasonic nebulizer and an aerosol mass spectrometer. This technique enables rapid analysis of complex organic mixtures using approximately an order of magnitude less sample than standard analyses.
Shan S. Zhou, Amos P. K. Tai, Shihan Sun, Mehliyar Sadiq, Colette L. Heald, and Jeffrey A. Geddes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 14133–14148, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14133-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14133-2018, 2018
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Surface ozone pollution harms vegetation. As plants play key roles shaping air quality, the plant damage may further worsen air pollution. We use various computer models to examine such feedback effects, and find that ozone-induced decline in leaf density can lead to much higher ozone levels in forested regions, mostly due to the reduced ability of leaves to absorb pollutants. This study highlights the importance of considering the two-way interactions between plants and air pollution.
Harri Kokkola, Thomas Kühn, Anton Laakso, Tommi Bergman, Kari E. J. Lehtinen, Tero Mielonen, Antti Arola, Scarlet Stadtler, Hannele Korhonen, Sylvaine Ferrachat, Ulrike Lohmann, David Neubauer, Ina Tegen, Colombe Siegenthaler-Le Drian, Martin G. Schultz, Isabelle Bey, Philip Stier, Nikos Daskalakis, Colette L. Heald, and Sami Romakkaniemi
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 3833–3863, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-3833-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-3833-2018, 2018
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In this paper we present a global aerosol–chemistry–climate model with the focus on its representation for atmospheric aerosol particles. In the model, aerosols are simulated using the aerosol module SALSA2.0, which in this paper is compared to satellite, ground, and aircraft-based observations of the properties of atmospheric aerosol. Based on this study, the model simulated aerosol properties compare well with the observations.
Anna L. Hodshire, Brett B. Palm, M. Lizabeth Alexander, Qijing Bian, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Eben S. Cross, Douglas A. Day, Suzane S. de Sá, Alex B. Guenther, Armin Hansel, James F. Hunter, Werner Jud, Thomas Karl, Saewung Kim, Jesse H. Kroll, Jeong-Hoo Park, Zhe Peng, Roger Seco, James N. Smith, Jose L. Jimenez, and Jeffrey R. Pierce
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 12433–12460, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12433-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12433-2018, 2018
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We investigate the nucleation and growth processes that shape the aerosol size distribution inside oxidation flow reactors (OFRs) that sampled ambient air from Colorado and the Amazon rainforest. Results indicate that organics are important for both nucleation and growth, vapor uptake was limited to accumulation-mode particles, fragmentation reactions were important to limit particle growth at higher OH exposures, and an H2SO4-organics nucleation mechanism captured new particle formation well.
Suzane S. de Sá, Brett B. Palm, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Weiwei Hu, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Lindsay D. Yee, Joel Brito, Samara Carbone, Igor O. Ribeiro, Glauber G. Cirino, Yingjun Liu, Ryan Thalman, Arthur Sedlacek, Aaron Funk, Courtney Schumacher, John E. Shilling, Johannes Schneider, Paulo Artaxo, Allen H. Goldstein, Rodrigo A. F. Souza, Jian Wang, Karena A. McKinney, Henrique Barbosa, M. Lizabeth Alexander, Jose L. Jimenez, and Scot T. Martin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 12185–12206, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12185-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-12185-2018, 2018
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This study aimed at understanding and quantifying the changes in mass concentration and composition of submicron airborne particulate matter (PM) in Amazonia due to urban pollution. Downwind of Manaus, PM concentrations increased by up to 200 % under polluted compared with background conditions. The observed changes included contributions from both primary and secondary processes. The differences in organic PM composition suggested a shift in the pathways of secondary production with pollution.
Lindsay D. Yee, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Rebecca A. Wernis, Meng Meng, Ventura Rivera, Nathan M. Kreisberg, Susanne V. Hering, Mads S. Bering, Marianne Glasius, Mary Alice Upshur, Ariana Gray Bé, Regan J. Thomson, Franz M. Geiger, John H. Offenberg, Michael Lewandowski, Ivan Kourtchev, Markus Kalberer, Suzane de Sá, Scot T. Martin, M. Lizabeth Alexander, Brett B. Palm, Weiwei Hu, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Jose L. Jimenez, Yingjun Liu, Karena A. McKinney, Paulo Artaxo, Juarez Viegas, Antonio Manzi, Maria B. Oliveira, Rodrigo de Souza, Luiz A. T. Machado, Karla Longo, and Allen H. Goldstein
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 10433–10457, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-10433-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-10433-2018, 2018
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Biogenic volatile organic compounds react in the atmosphere to form secondary organic aerosol, yet the chemical pathways remain unclear. We collected filter samples and deployed a semi-volatile thermal desorption aerosol gas chromatograph in the central Amazon. We measured 30 sesquiterpenes and 4 diterpenes and find them to be important for reactive ozone loss. We estimate that sesquiterpene oxidation contributes at least 0.4–5 % (median 1 %) of observed submicron organic aerosol mass.
Luke D. Schiferl, Colette L. Heald, and David Kelly
Biogeosciences, 15, 4301–4315, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4301-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-15-4301-2018, 2018
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To understand future food security, it is critical to develop realistic crop models with reliable sensitivity to environmental factors. We find that particulate matter (PM) causes a significant, but smaller, enhancement for global wheat and rice production than estimated without nutrient and physiological limitations imposed by a crop model. In contrast, maize grows near its physiological maximum, with little enhancement from PM. Nitrogen deposition leads to a small increase in crop production.
Luke D. Schiferl and Colette L. Heald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5953–5966, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5953-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5953-2018, 2018
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Global population growth and industrialization have contributed to poor air quality worldwide, and increasing population will put pressure on global food production. We therefore assess how air pollution may impact crop growth. Ozone has previously been shown to damage crops. We demonstrate that the impact of particles associated with enhanced light scattering promotes growth, offsetting much, if not all, ozone damage. This has implications for air quality management and global food security.
Xuan Wang, Colette L. Heald, Jiumeng Liu, Rodney J. Weber, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Joshua P. Schwarz, and Anne E. Perring
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 635–653, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-635-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-635-2018, 2018
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Brown carbon (BrC) contributes significantly to uncertainty in estimating the global direct radiative effect (DRE) of aerosols. We develop a global model simulation of BrC and test it against BrC absorption measurements from two aircraft campaigns in the continental United States. We suggest that BrC DRE has been overestimated previously due to the lack of observational constraints from direct measurements and omission of the effects of photochemical whitening.
Brett B. Palm, Suzane S. de Sá, Douglas A. Day, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Weiwei Hu, Roger Seco, Steven J. Sjostedt, Jeong-Hoo Park, Alex B. Guenther, Saewung Kim, Joel Brito, Florian Wurm, Paulo Artaxo, Ryan Thalman, Jian Wang, Lindsay D. Yee, Rebecca Wernis, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Allen H. Goldstein, Yingjun Liu, Stephen R. Springston, Rodrigo Souza, Matt K. Newburn, M. Lizabeth Alexander, Scot T. Martin, and Jose L. Jimenez
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 467–493, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-467-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-467-2018, 2018
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Ambient air was oxidized by OH or O3 in an oxidation flow reactor during both wet and dry seasons in the GoAmazon2014/5 campaign to study secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. We investigated how much biogenic, urban, and biomass burning sources contributed to the ambient concentrations of SOA precursor gases and how their contributions changed diurnally and seasonally. SOA yields and hygroscopicity of organic aerosol in the oxidation flow reactor were also studied.
Havala O. T. Pye, Andreas Zuend, Juliane L. Fry, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Shannon L. Capps, K. Wyat Appel, Hosein Foroutan, Lu Xu, Nga L. Ng, and Allen H. Goldstein
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 357–370, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-357-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-357-2018, 2018
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Thermodynamic modeling revealed that some but not all measurements of ammonium-to-sulfate ratios are consistent with theory. The measurement diversity likely explains the previously reported range of results regarding the suitability of thermodynamic modeling. Despite particles being predominantly phase separated, organic–inorganic interactions resulted in increased aerosol pH and partitioning towards the particle phase for highly oxygenated organic compounds compared to traditional methods.
Suzane S. de Sá, Brett B. Palm, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Matthew K. Newburn, Weiwei Hu, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Lindsay D. Yee, Ryan Thalman, Joel Brito, Samara Carbone, Paulo Artaxo, Allen H. Goldstein, Antonio O. Manzi, Rodrigo A. F. Souza, Fan Mei, John E. Shilling, Stephen R. Springston, Jian Wang, Jason D. Surratt, M. Lizabeth Alexander, Jose L. Jimenez, and Scot T. Martin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 6611–6629, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6611-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6611-2017, 2017
Molly B. Smith, Natalie M. Mahowald, Samuel Albani, Aaron Perry, Remi Losno, Zihan Qu, Beatrice Marticorena, David A. Ridley, and Colette L. Heald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 3253–3278, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3253-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3253-2017, 2017
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Using different meteorology reanalyses to drive dust in climate modeling can produce dissimilar global dust distributions, especially in the Southern Hemisphere (SH). It may therefore not be advisable for SH dust studies to base results on simulations driven by one reanalysis. Northern Hemisphere dust varies mostly on seasonal timescales, while SH dust varies on interannual timescales. Dust is an important part of climate modeling, and we hope this contributes to understanding these simulations.
Brian M. Lerner, Jessica B. Gilman, Kenneth C. Aikin, Elliot L. Atlas, Paul D. Goldan, Martin Graus, Roger Hendershot, Gabriel A. Isaacman-VanWertz, Abigail Koss, William C. Kuster, Richard A. Lueb, Richard J. McLaughlin, Jeff Peischl, Donna Sueper, Thomas B. Ryerson, Travis W. Tokarek, Carsten Warneke, Bin Yuan, and Joost A. de Gouw
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 291–313, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-291-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-291-2017, 2017
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Whole air sampling followed by analysis by gas chromatography is a common technique for characterization of trace volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere. We describe a new automated gas chromatograph–mass spectrograph which uses a Stirling cooler for sample preconcentration at −165 °C without the need for a cryogen such as liquid nitrogen. We also discuss potential sources of artifacts from our electropolished stainless steel sampling system and present results from two field campaigns.
Havala O. T. Pye, Benjamin N. Murphy, Lu Xu, Nga L. Ng, Annmarie G. Carlton, Hongyu Guo, Rodney Weber, Petros Vasilakos, K. Wyat Appel, Sri Hapsari Budisulistiorini, Jason D. Surratt, Athanasios Nenes, Weiwei Hu, Jose L. Jimenez, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Pawel K. Misztal, and Allen H. Goldstein
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 343–369, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-343-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-343-2017, 2017
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We use a chemical transport model to examine how organic compounds in the atmosphere interact with water present in particles. Organic compounds themselves lead to water uptake, and organic compounds interact with water associated with inorganic compounds in the rural southeast atmosphere. Including interactions of organic compounds with water requires a treatment of nonideality to more accurately represent aerosol observations during the Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS) 2013.
David A. Ridley, Colette L. Heald, Jasper F. Kok, and Chun Zhao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 15097–15117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15097-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15097-2016, 2016
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Mineral dust aerosol affects climate through interaction with radiation and clouds, human health through contribution to particulate matter, and ecosystem health through nutrient transport and deposition. In this study, we use satellite and in situ retrievals to derive an observational estimate of the global dust AOD with which evaluate modeled dust AOD. Differences in the seasonality and regional distribution of dust AOD between observations and models are highlighted.
Colette L. Heald and Jeffrey A. Geddes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 14997–15010, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14997-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14997-2016, 2016
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Humans have altered the surface of the Earth since preindustrial times. These changes (largely expansion of croplands and pasturelands) have modified biosphere–atmosphere fluxes. In this study we use a global model to assess the impact of these changes on the formation of secondary particulate matter and troposphere ozone. We find that there are significant air quality and climate impacts associated with these changes.
Xuan Wang, Colette L. Heald, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Suzane S. de Sá, Scot T. Martin, M. Lizabeth Alexander, Thomas B. Watson, Allison C. Aiken, Stephen R. Springston, and Paulo Artaxo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 12733–12752, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-12733-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-12733-2016, 2016
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We describe a new approach to estimate the absorption of brown carbon (BrC) from multiple-wavelength absorption measurements. By applying this method to column and surface observations globally, we find that BrC contributes up to 40 % of the absorption measured at 440 nm. The analysis of two surface sites also suggests that BrC absorptivity decreases with photochemical aging in biomass burning plumes, but not in typical urban conditions.
Luke D. Schiferl, Colette L. Heald, Martin Van Damme, Lieven Clarisse, Cathy Clerbaux, Pierre-François Coheur, John B. Nowak, J. Andrew Neuman, Scott C. Herndon, Joseph R. Roscioli, and Scott J. Eilerman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 12305–12328, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-12305-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-12305-2016, 2016
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This study combines new observations and a simulation to assess the interannual variability of atmospheric ammonia concentrations over the United States. The model generally underrepresents the observed variability. Nearly two-thirds of the simulated variability is caused by meteorology, twice that caused by regulations on fossil fuel combustion emissions. Adding ammonia emissions variability does not substantially improve the simulation and has little impact on summer particle concentrations.
Sam J. Silva, Colette L. Heald, Jeffrey A. Geddes, Kemen G. Austin, Prasad S. Kasibhatla, and Miriam E. Marlier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10621–10635, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10621-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10621-2016, 2016
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We investigate the impacts of current (2010) and future (2020) oil palm plantations across Southeast Asia on surface–atmosphere exchange and air quality using satellite data, land maps, and a chemical transport model. These changes lead to increases in surface ozone and particulate matter. Oil palm plantations are likely to continue to degrade regional air quality in the coming decade and hinder efforts to achieve air quality regulations in major urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Matthew J. Alvarado, Chantelle R. Lonsdale, Helen L. Macintyre, Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, David A. Ridley, Colette L. Heald, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Bruce E. Anderson, Michael J. Cubison, Jose L. Jimenez, Yutaka Kondo, Lokesh K. Sahu, Jack E. Dibb, and Chien Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9435–9455, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9435-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9435-2016, 2016
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Understanding the scattering and absorption of light by aerosols is necessary for understanding air quality and climate change. We used data from the 2008 ARCTAS campaign to evaluate aerosol optical property models using a closure methodology that separates errors in these models from other errors in aerosol emissions, chemistry, or transport. We find that the models on average perform reasonably well, and make suggestions for how remaining biases could be reduced.
Bonne Ford and Colette L. Heald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 3499–3523, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3499-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3499-2016, 2016
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As motivation for air quality research, many studies cite the fact that exposure to particulate matter is associated with premature mortality. Recently, more studies have also tried to quantify this burden; however, there are many data sets that can be used and many different methodological choices to be made. In this paper, we seek to explain the different sources of uncertainty in health impact assessments through the example of using model and satellite-based PM2.5 concentrations.
Brett B. Palm, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Amber M. Ortega, Douglas A. Day, Lisa Kaser, Werner Jud, Thomas Karl, Armin Hansel, James F. Hunter, Eben S. Cross, Jesse H. Kroll, Zhe Peng, William H. Brune, and Jose L. Jimenez
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2943–2970, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2943-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2943-2016, 2016
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Ambient pine forest air was oxidized by OH radicals in a PAM oxidation flow reactor during the BEACHON-RoMBAS campaign to study secondary organic aerosol formation. Approximately 4.4 times more secondary organic aerosol was formed in the reactor than could be explained by the volatile organic gases (VOCs) measured in ambient air. The organic aerosol formation can be explained by including an SOA yield from typically unmeasured semivolatile and intermediate-volatility organic gases (S/IVOCs).
Jeffrey A. Geddes, Colette L. Heald, Sam J. Silva, and Randall V. Martin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2323–2340, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2323-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2323-2016, 2016
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Land use and land cover changes driven by anthropogenic activities or natural causes (e.g., forestry management, agriculture, wildfires) can impact climate and air quality in many complex ways. Using a state-of-the-art chemistry model, we investigate how tree mortality in the US due to insect infestation and disease outbreak may impact atmospheric composition. We find that the surface concentrations of ozone and aerosol can be altered due to changing background emissions and loss processes.
W. W. Hu, P. Campuzano-Jost, B. B. Palm, D. A. Day, A. M. Ortega, P. L. Hayes, J. E. Krechmer, Q. Chen, M. Kuwata, Y. J. Liu, S. S. de Sá, K. McKinney, S. T. Martin, M. Hu, S. H. Budisulistiorini, M. Riva, J. D. Surratt, J. M. St. Clair, G. Isaacman-Van Wertz, L. D. Yee, A. H. Goldstein, S. Carbone, J. Brito, P. Artaxo, J. A. de Gouw, A. Koss, A. Wisthaler, T. Mikoviny, T. Karl, L. Kaser, W. Jud, A. Hansel, K. S. Docherty, M. L. Alexander, N. H. Robinson, H. Coe, J. D. Allan, M. R. Canagaratna, F. Paulot, and J. L. Jimenez
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 11807–11833, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11807-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11807-2015, 2015
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This work summarized all the studies reporting isoprene epoxydiols-derived secondary organic aerosol (IEPOX-SOA) measured globally by aerosol mass spectrometer and compare them with modeled gas-phase IEPOX, with results suggestive of the importance of IEPOX-SOA for regional and global OA budgets. A real-time tracer of IEPOX-SOA is thoroughly evaluated for the first time by combing multiple field and chamber studies. A quick and easy empirical method on IEPOX-SOA estimation is also presented.
W. C. Porter, C. L. Heald, D. Cooley, and B. Russell
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 10349–10366, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10349-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10349-2015, 2015
F. D. Lopez-Hilfiker, C. Mohr, M. Ehn, F. Rubach, E. Kleist, J. Wildt, Th. F. Mentel, A. J. Carrasquillo, K. E. Daumit, J. F. Hunter, J. H. Kroll, D. R. Worsnop, and J. A. Thornton
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 7765–7776, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7765-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7765-2015, 2015
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We measured a large suite organic compounds using a recently developed Filter Inlet for Gases and AEROsols (FIGAERO) coupled to a (HR-ToF-CIMS). The instrument was deployed on environmental simulation chambers to study monoterpene oxidation as a secondary organic aerosol (SOA) source. We find that approximately 50% of the detected particle phase mass is associated with compounds having effective vapor pressures 4, or more, orders of magnitude lower than commonly measured products.
A. T. Lambe, P. S. Chhabra, T. B. Onasch, W. H. Brune, J. F. Hunter, J. H. Kroll, M. J. Cummings, J. F. Brogan, Y. Parmar, D. R. Worsnop, C. E. Kolb, and P. Davidovits
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 3063–3075, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3063-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3063-2015, 2015
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We compared the chemistry and yields of SOA generated from OH oxidation of gas-phase precursors in a flow reactor (high OH, short residence time) and environmental chambers (low OH, long residence time). We find that chemical composition of SOA produced in the flow reactor and in chambers is similar. SOA yields measured in the flow reactor are lower than in chambers. Seed particles increase the yield of SOA produced in the flow reactor and may account in part for higher SOA yields in chambers.
M. Val Martin, C. L. Heald, J.-F. Lamarque, S. Tilmes, L. K. Emmons, and B. A. Schichtel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 2805–2823, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2805-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-2805-2015, 2015
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We present for the first time the relative effect of climate, emissions, and land use change on ozone and PM25 over the United States, focusing on the national parks. Air quality in 2050 will likely be dominated by emission patterns, but climate and land use changes alone can lead to a substantial increase in air pollution over most of the US, with important implications for O3 air quality, visibility and ecosystem health degradation in the national parks.
M. R. Canagaratna, J. L. Jimenez, J. H. Kroll, Q. Chen, S. H. Kessler, P. Massoli, L. Hildebrandt Ruiz, E. Fortner, L. R. Williams, K. R. Wilson, J. D. Surratt, N. M. Donahue, J. T. Jayne, and D. R. Worsnop
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 253–272, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-253-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-253-2015, 2015
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Atomic oxygen-to-carbon (O:C), hydrogen-to-carbon (H:C), and organic mass-to-organic carbon (OM:OC) ratios of ambient organic aerosol (OA) species provide key constraints for understanding their sources and impacts. Here an improved method for obtaining accurate O:C, H:C, and OM:OC with a widely used aerosol mass spectrometer is developed. These results imply that OA is more oxidized than previously estimated and indicate the need for new chemical mechanisms that simulate ambient oxidation.
G. Isaacman, N. M. Kreisberg, L. D. Yee, D. R. Worton, A. W. H. Chan, J. A. Moss, S. V. Hering, and A. H. Goldstein
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 4417–4429, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4417-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4417-2014, 2014
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We present here a new in situ instrument for ambient measurements of highly polar organic semi-volatile and low-volatility compounds in both the gas and particle phase by gas chromatography. Compounds previously measured only through filter collection and offline analysis can now be measured hourly with, in most cases, less than 20% uncertainty. This instrument provides unprecedented time resolution and the first ever observations of gas-particle partitioning for most of these compounds.
N. M. Kreisberg, D. R. Worton, Y. Zhao, G. Isaacman, A. H. Goldstein, and S. V. Hering
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 4431–4444, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4431-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-4431-2014, 2014
X. Wang, C. L. Heald, D. A. Ridley, J. P. Schwarz, J. R. Spackman, A. E. Perring, H. Coe, D. Liu, and A. D. Clarke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10989–11010, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10989-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10989-2014, 2014
K. E. Daumit, A. J. Carrasquillo, J. F. Hunter, and J. H. Kroll
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10773–10784, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10773-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10773-2014, 2014
D. V. Spracklen and C. L. Heald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 9051–9059, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9051-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-9051-2014, 2014
D. A. Ridley, C. L. Heald, and J. M. Prospero
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 5735–5747, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5735-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5735-2014, 2014
C. L. Heald, D. A. Ridley, J. H. Kroll, S. R. H. Barrett, K. E. Cady-Pereira, M. J. Alvarado, and C. D. Holmes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 5513–5527, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5513-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5513-2014, 2014
M. Van Damme, L. Clarisse, C. L. Heald, D. Hurtmans, Y. Ngadi, C. Clerbaux, A. J. Dolman, J. W. Erisman, and P. F. Coheur
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 2905–2922, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2905-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-2905-2014, 2014
B. Ford and C. L. Heald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 9269–9283, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9269-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-9269-2013, 2013
E. S. Cross, J. F. Hunter, A. J. Carrasquillo, J. P. Franklin, S. C. Herndon, J. T. Jayne, D. R. Worsnop, R. C. Miake-Lye, and J. H. Kroll
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 7845–7858, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-7845-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-7845-2013, 2013
M. Val Martin, C. L. Heald, B. Ford, A. J. Prenni, and C. Wiedinmyer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 7429–7439, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-7429-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-7429-2013, 2013
A. R. Berg, C. L. Heald, K. E. Huff Hartz, A. G. Hallar, A. J. H. Meddens, J. A. Hicke, J.-F. Lamarque, and S. Tilmes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3149–3161, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3149-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3149-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Gases | Technique: In Situ Measurement | Topic: Validation and Intercomparisons
Improving consistency in methane emission quantification from the natural gas distribution systems across measurement devices
Interpretation of mass spectra by a Vocus proton-transfer-reaction mass spectrometer (PTR-MS) at an urban site: insights from gas chromatographic pre-separation
Improving the quantification of peak concentrations for air quality sensors via data weighting
Long-term observations of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 trends and comparison of two measurement systems at Pallas-Sammaltunturi station in Northern Finland
Evaluating mass flow meter measurements from chambers for greenhouse gas emission from orphan wells and other point sources
An evaluation of airborne mass balance and tracer correlation approaches to estimate site-level CH4 emissions from LNG facilities using CO2 as a tracer of opportunity
Calibrating adsorptive and reactive losses of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes in dynamic chambers using deuterated surrogates
Orphaned Oil & Gas Well Methane Emission Rates Quantified with Gaussian Plume Inversions of Ambient Observations
OF–CEAS laser spectroscopy to measure water isotopes in dry environments: example of application in Antarctica
Performance evaluation of air quality sensors for environmental epidemiology
Towards a high-quality in situ observation network for oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs) in Europe: transferring metrological traceability to the field
Intercomparison of IAGOS-CORE, IAGOS-CARIBIC and WMO/GAW-WCCOS Ozone Instruments at the Environmental Simulation Facility at Jülich, Germany
Validation of formaldehyde products from three satellite retrievals (OMI SAO, OMPS-NPP SAO, and OMI BIRA) in the marine atmosphere with four seasons of Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom) aircraft observations
Methodology and uncertainty estimation for measurements of methane leakage in a manufactured house
Evaluating Weather and Chemical Transport Models at High Latitudes using MAGIC2021 Airborne Measurements
Alternate materials for the capture and quantification of gaseous oxidized mercury in the atmosphere
Lower-cost eddy covariance for CO2 and H2O fluxes over grassland and agroforestry
Evaluation of optimized flux chamber design for measurement of ammonia emission after field application of slurry with full-scale farm machinery
Preparation of low-concentration H2 test gas mixtures in ambient air for calibration of H2 sensors
Pico-Light H2O: intercomparison of in situ water vapour measurements during the AsA 2022 campaign
Mobile air quality monitoring and comparison to fixed monitoring sites for instrument performance assessment
Intercomparison of eddy-covariance software for urban tall-tower sites
Assessment of current methane emission quantification techniques for natural gas midstream applications
Performance assessment of state-of-the-art and novel methods for remote compliance monitoring of sulfur emissions from shipping
Intercomparison of detection and quantification methods for methane emissions from the natural gas distribution network in Hamburg, Germany
Comparison of photoacoustic spectroscopy and cavity ring-down spectroscopy for ambient methane monitoring at Hohenpeißenberg
Comparison of atmospheric CO, CO2 and CH4 measurements at the Schneefernerhaus and the mountain ridge at Zugspitze
Intercomparison of commercial analyzers for atmospheric ethane and methane observations
Real-time measurement of phase partitioning of organic compounds using a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer coupled to a CHARON inlet
A quantitative comparison of methods used to measure smaller methane emissions typically observed from superannuated oil and gas infrastructure
Comparing airborne algorithms for greenhouse gas flux measurements over the Alberta oil sands
Characterization of inexpensive metal oxide sensor performance for trace methane detection
Intercomparison of upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric water vapor measurements over the Asian Summer Monsoon during the StratoClim campaign
Air pollution measurement errors: is your data fit for purpose?
Performance characterization of low-cost air quality sensors for off-grid deployment in rural Malawi
Comment on “Comparison of ozone measurement methods in biomass burning smoke: an evaluation under field and laboratory conditions” by Long et al. (2021)
Homogenization of the Observatoire de Haute Provence electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesonde data record: comparison with lidar and satellite observations
Long-term behavior and stability of calibration models for NO and NO2 low-cost sensors
Controlled-release experiment to investigate uncertainties in UAV-based emission quantification for methane point sources
Ozone formation sensitivity study using machine learning coupled with the reactivity of volatile organic compound species
Evaluating uncertainty in sensor networks for urban air pollution insights
Estimating oil sands emissions using horizontal path-integrated column measurements
Global evaluation of the precipitable-water-vapor product from MERSI-II (Medium Resolution Spectral Imager) on board the Fengyun-3D satellite
Field testing two flux footprint models
Validation of a new cavity ring-down spectrometer for measuring tropospheric gaseous hydrogen chloride
Comparison of formaldehyde measurements by Hantzsch, CRDS and DOAS in the SAPHIR chamber
A field intercomparison of three passive air samplers for gaseous mercury in ambient air
Beef cattle methane emissions measured with tracer-ratio and inverse dispersion modelling techniques
Methane emissions from an oil sands tailings pond: a quantitative comparison of fluxes derived by different methods
Performance of open-path GasFinder3 devices for CH4 concentration measurements close to ambient levels
Judith Tettenborn, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, Daan Stroeken, Hossein Maazallahi, Carina van der Veen, Arjan Hensen, Ilona Velzeboer, Pim van den Bulk, Felix Vogel, Lawson Gillespie, Sebastien Ars, James France, David Lowry, Rebecca Fisher, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 3569–3584, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3569-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3569-2025, 2025
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Measurements of methane with vehicle-based sensors are an effective method to identify and quantify leaks from urban gas distribution systems. We deliberately released methane in different environments and calibrated the response of different methane analysers when they transected the plumes in a vehicle. We derived an improved statistical function for consistent emission estimations using different instruments. Repeated transects reduce the uncertainty in emission rate estimates.
Ying Zhang, Yuwei Wang, Chuang Li, Yueyang Li, Sijia Yin, Megan S. Claflin, Brian M. Lerner, Douglas Worsnop, and Lin Wang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 3547–3568, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3547-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3547-2025, 2025
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This study provides insight into how individual ions measured by proton-transfer-reaction (PTR) mass spectrometry are produced by multiple volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A reference table is provided for attributing the PTR signal to contributing VOC species. The signals are grouped according to the complexity of their potential identities. We find that a number of signal ions such as C6H7+ for benzene and C5H9+ for isoprene merely give an upper limit of their corresponding concentrations.
Caroline Frischmon, Jonathan Silberstein, Annamarie Guth, Erick Mattson, Jack Porter, and Michael Hannigan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 3147–3159, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3147-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3147-2025, 2025
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Air quality sensors often underpredict peak concentrations, which is a major issue in applications such as emission event detection. Here, we detail a novel approach involving data weighting to improve quantification of these peak values. To demonstrate its effectiveness, we applied data weighting to carbon monoxide, methane, and volatile organic compound sensor data. This work broadens our ability to use air sensors in contexts where accurate quantification of peak concentrations is essential.
Antti Laitinen, Hermanni Aaltonen, Christoph Zellweger, Aki Tsuruta, Tuula Aalto, and Juha Hatakka
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 3109–3133, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3109-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-3109-2025, 2025
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This paper presents long-term observations of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 mole fractions and a comparison of two permanent and two mobile measurement systems located in Northern Finland. Furthermore, the observed mole fractions are compared against the mean marine boundary layer product for the Northern Hemisphere. The comparisons of all the systems show good agreement in relation to the World Meteorological Organization/Global Atmosphere Watch network compatibility goal limits for CO2 and CH4.
Karl B. Haase and Nicholas J. Gianoutsos
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1201, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1201, 2025
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This work demonstrates a simple approach for using mass flow meters connected to rigid chambers for measuring gas emissions rates in situations the meter cannot be attached directly, such as orphan oil and gas wells. This paper shows the results of performance testing, demonstrates common sources of uncertainty, and provides suggestions for how to use the approach to generate the best quality data. The findings can be used by researchers, the petroleum industry, regulators, and carbon markets.
Mark F. Lunt, Stephen J. Harris, Jorg Hacker, Ian Joynes, Tim Robertson, Simon Thompson, and James L. France
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1926, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1926, 2025
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To ensure robust use of measurement-based approaches to estimate methane emissions from individual sites, it is important to validate the accuracy of the methods used in the field. By using co-emitted carbon dioxide, we evaluate the performance of one such quantification method at liquefied natural gas terminals. We further demonstrate the potential for a more efficient quantification approach by considering the ratio of methane to carbon dioxide concentrations.
Jianqiang Zeng, Yanli Zhang, Haofan Ran, Weihua Pang, Hao Guo, Zhaobin Mu, Wei Song, and Xinming Wang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1811–1821, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1811-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1811-2025, 2025
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This study revealed the existence of significant species-specific adsorptive and reactive losses of monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes in dynamic chambers. The deuterated α-pinene-d3 and β-caryophyllene-d2 were proven as effective surrogates in tracing these losses for some key monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes. The findings highlight the importance of selecting internal surrogates that closely match the adsorptive and reactive behaviors of target compounds for precise loss correction.
Emily Follansbee, James E. Lee, Mohit L. Dubey, Jonathan F. Dooley, Curtis Shuck, Ken Minschwaner, Andre Santos, Sebastien C. Biraud, and Manvendra K. Dubey
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-344, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-344, 2025
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This work uses ambient methane and wind measurements to quantify methane emissions from a leaking orphaned oil and gas well using Gaussian plume inversions. Our analysis shows that existing Gaussian plume methods that assume atmospheric stability are prone to large errors. We report a more robust analysis that determines plume dispersion coefficients from our in situ observations. Our technique enables more accurate methane quantification of orphaned oil and gas wells to prioritize plugging.
Thomas Lauwers, Elise Fourré, Olivier Jossoud, Daniele Romanini, Frédéric Prié, Giordano Nitti, Mathieu Casado, Kévin Jaulin, Markus Miltner, Morgane Farradèche, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, and Amaëlle Landais
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1135–1147, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1135-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1135-2025, 2025
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Water vapour isotopes are important tools to better understand processes governing the atmospheric hydrological cycle. In polar regions, their measurement helps to improve the interpretation of water isotopic records in ice cores. However, in situ water vapour isotopic monitoring is an important challenge, especially in dry places of East Antarctica. We present here an alternative laser spectroscopy technique adapted for such measurements, with a limit of detection down to 10 ppm humidity.
Miriam Chacón-Mateos, Héctor García-Salamero, Bernd Laquai, and Ulrich Vogt
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-587, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-587, 2025
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This study evaluates air quality sensors in indoor & outdoor environments to support health research. Sensors were calibrated using data from reference instruments, and regression and machine learning models were tested for data correction. Results highlight the importance of using high-quality training data during co-location. Integrating metadata, such as activity logs, helps validate calibrated sensor data. These findings can enhance the use of air quality sensors in health studies globally.
Maitane Iturrate-Garcia, Thérèse Salameh, Paul Schlauri, Annarita Baldan, Martin K. Vollmer, Evdokia Stratigou, Sebastien Dusanter, Jianrong Li, Stefan Persijn, Anja Claude, Rupert Holzinger, Christophe Sutour, Tatiana Macé, Yasin Elshorbany, Andreas Ackermann, Céline Pascale, and Stefan Reimann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 371–403, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-371-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-371-2025, 2025
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Accurate and comparable measurements of oxygenated organic compounds (OVOCs) are crucial in assessing tropospheric ozone burdens and trends. However, the monitoring of many OVOCs remains challenging because of their low atmospheric abundance and lack of stable and traceable calibration standards. This paper describes the calibration standards developed for OVOCs at a low amount of substance fractions (<100 nmol mol-1) to transfer traceability of the International System of Units to the field.
Herman G.J. Smit, Torben Galle, Romain Blot, Florian Obersteiner, Philippe Nédélec, Andreas Zahn, Jean-Marc Cousin, Ulrich Bundke, Andreas Petzold, Valerie Thouret, and Hannah Clark
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3760, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3760, 2025
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The two ozone instruments of IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observation System) have been compared with the Ozone PhotoMeter (OPM) of the World Calibration Center of Ozone Sondes (WCCOS) in an atmospheric simulation chamber under realistic flight conditions of pressure, temperature, and ozone concentrations. The two IAGOS-instruments showed good agreement with the OPM within 5–6 %. The observed differences are small but systematic and reproducible during the intercomparison.
Jin Liao, Glenn M. Wolfe, Alexander E. Kotsakis, Julie M. Nicely, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Gonzalo González Abad, Caroline R. Nowlan, Zolal Ayazpour, Isabelle De Smedt, Eric C. Apel, and Rebecca S. Hornbrook
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1–16, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1-2025, 2025
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Validation of satellite HCHO over the remote marine regions is relatively low, and modeled HCHO in these regions is usually added as a global satellite HCHO background. This paper intercompares three satellite HCHO retrievals and validates them against in situ observations from the NASA ATom mission. All retrievals are correlated with ATom-integrated columns over remote oceans, with OMI SAO (v004) showing the best agreement. A persistent low bias is found in all retrievals at high latitudes.
Anna Karion, Michael F. Link, Rileigh Robertson, Tyler Boyle, and Dustin Poppendieck
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 7065–7075, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7065-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-7065-2024, 2024
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Methane leaks into houses that use natural gas from appliances, pipes, and fittings. We measured methane emitted from a manufactured house under different ventilation conditions using indoor and outdoor concentration measurements. We injected methane at prescribed rates into the house and then measured the emissions using our method. We report the error in the calculation based on these tests. We also describe the method and provide guidance on conducting this type of experiment.
Félix Langot, Cyril Crevoisier, Thomas Lauvaux, Charbel Abdallah, Jérôme Pernin, Xin Lin, Marielle Saunois, Axel Guedj, Thomas Ponthieu, Anke Roiger, Klaus-Dirk Gottschaldt, and Alina Fiehn
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3559, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3559, 2024
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Our study compares outputs from meteorological and atmospheric composition models to data from the MAGIC2021 campaign that took place in Sweden. Our results highlight performance differences among models, revealing strengths and weaknesses of different modelling techniques. We also found that wetland emission inventories overestimated emissions in regional simulations. This work helps refining methane emission predictions, essential for understanding climate change.
Livia Lown, Sarrah M. Dunham-Cheatham, Seth N. Lyman, and Mae S. Gustin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6397–6413, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6397-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6397-2024, 2024
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New sorbent materials are needed to preconcentrate atmospheric oxidized mercury for analysis by developing mass spectrometry methods. Chitosan, α-Al2O3, and γ-Al2O3 were tested for quantitative gaseous oxidized mercury sorption in ambient air under laboratory and field conditions. Although these materials sorbed gaseous oxidized mercury without sorbing elemental mercury in the laboratory, less oxidized mercury was recovered from these materials compared to cation exchange membranes in the field.
Justus G. V. van Ramshorst, Alexander Knohl, José Ángel Callejas-Rodelas, Robert Clement, Timothy C. Hill, Lukas Siebicke, and Christian Markwitz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6047–6071, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6047-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6047-2024, 2024
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In this work we present experimental field results of a lower-cost eddy covariance (LC-EC) system, which can measure the ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide and water vapour with the atmosphere. During three field campaigns on a grassland and agroforestry grassland, we compared the LC-EC with a conventional eddy covariance (CON-EC) system. Our results show that LC-EC has the potential to measure EC fluxes at only approximately 25 % of the cost of a CON-EC system.
Johanna Pedersen, Sasha D. Hafner, Andreas Pacholski, Valthor I. Karlsson, Li Rong, Rodrigo Labouriau, and Jesper N. Kamp
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4493–4505, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4493-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4493-2024, 2024
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Field-applied animal slurry is a significant source of NH3 emission. A new system of dynamic flux chambers for NH3 measurements was developed and validated using three field trials in order to assess the variability after application with a trailing hose at different scales: manual (handheld) application, a 3 m slurry boom, and a 30 m slurry boom. The system facilitates NH3 emission measurement with replication after both manual and farm-scale slurry application with relatively high precision.
Niklas Karbach, Lisa Höhler, Peter Hoor, Heiko Bozem, Nicole Bobrowski, and Thorsten Hoffmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4081–4086, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4081-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4081-2024, 2024
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The system presented here can accurately generate and reproduce a stable flow of gas mixtures of known concentrations over several days using ambient air as a dilution medium. In combination with the small size and low weight of the system, this enables the calibration of hydrogen sensors in the field, reducing the influence of matrix effects on the accuracy of the sensor. The system is inexpensive to assemble and easy to maintain, which is the key to reliable measurement results.
Mélanie Ghysels, Georges Durry, Nadir Amarouche, Dale Hurst, Emrys Hall, Kensy Xiong, Jean-Charles Dupont, Jean-Christophe Samake, Fabien Frérot, Raghed Bejjani, and Emmanuel D. Riviere
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3495–3513, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3495-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3495-2024, 2024
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A tunable diode laser hygrometer, “Pico-Light H2O”, is presented and its performances are evaluated during the AsA 2022 balloon-borne intercomparison campaign from Aire-sur-l'Adour (France) in September 2022. A total of 15 balloons were launched within the framework of the EU-funded HEMERA project. Pico-Light H2O has been compared in situ with the NOAA Frost Point Hygrometer in the upper troposphere and stratosphere, as well as with meteorological sondes (iMet-4 and M20) in the troposphere.
Andrew R. Whitehill, Melissa Lunden, Brian LaFranchi, Surender Kaushik, and Paul A. Solomon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2991–3009, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2991-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2991-2024, 2024
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We present an analysis from two large-scale mobile air quality monitoring campaigns in Colorado and California. We compare mobile measurements of air quality to measurements from nearby regulatory sites. The goal of this paper is to explore how fixed-site measurements (such as regulatory site measurements) can be used for ongoing instrument performance assessment of mobile monitoring platforms over extended measurement campaigns.
Changxing Lan, Matthias Mauder, Stavros Stagakis, Benjamin Loubet, Claudio D'Onofrio, Stefan Metzger, David Durden, and Pedro-Henrique Herig-Coimbra
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2649–2669, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2649-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2649-2024, 2024
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Using eddy-covariance systems deployed in three cities, we aimed to elucidate the sources of discrepancies in flux estimations from different software packages. One crucial finding is the impact of low-frequency spectral loss corrections on tall-tower flux estimations. Our findings emphasize the significance of a standardized measurement setup and consistent postprocessing configurations in minimizing the systematic flux uncertainty resulting from the usage of different software packages.
Yunsong Liu, Jean-Daniel Paris, Gregoire Broquet, Violeta Bescós Roy, Tania Meixus Fernandez, Rasmus Andersen, Andrés Russu Berlanga, Emil Christensen, Yann Courtois, Sebastian Dominok, Corentin Dussenne, Travis Eckert, Andrew Finlayson, Aurora Fernández de la Fuente, Catlin Gunn, Ram Hashmonay, Juliano Grigoleto Hayashi, Jonathan Helmore, Soeren Honsel, Fabrizio Innocenti, Matti Irjala, Torgrim Log, Cristina Lopez, Francisco Cortés Martínez, Jonathan Martinez, Adrien Massardier, Helle Gottschalk Nygaard, Paula Agregan Reboredo, Elodie Rousset, Axel Scherello, Matthias Ulbricht, Damien Weidmann, Oliver Williams, Nigel Yarrow, Murès Zarea, Robert Ziegler, Jean Sciare, Mihalis Vrekoussis, and Philippe Bousquet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1633–1649, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1633-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1633-2024, 2024
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We investigated the performance of 10 methane emission quantification techniques in a blind controlled-release experiment at an inerted natural gas compressor station. We reported their respective strengths, weaknesses, and potential complementarity depending on the emission rates and atmospheric conditions. Additionally, we assess the dependence of emission quantification performance on key parameters such as wind speed, deployment constraints, and measurement duration.
Jörg Beecken, Andreas Weigelt, Simone Griesel, Johan Mellqvist, Alexander V. Conde Jacobo, Daniëlle van Dinther, Jan Duyzer, Jon Knudsen, Bettina Knudsen, and Leonidas Ntziachristos
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5883–5895, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5883-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5883-2023, 2023
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Air pollution from shipping is a debated topic in science and politics. We compare different monitoring systems currently used in different European countries for the enforcement of emission limits regarding air pollution from ships according to regulation. The system performances were individually assessed in the field by comparison with true values. Non-compliant vessels with actual fuel sulfur contents > 0.15–0.19 % Sm/m can be detected by the compared systems with 95 % confidence.
Hossein Maazallahi, Antonio Delre, Charlotte Scheutz, Anders M. Fredenslund, Stefan Schwietzke, Hugo Denier van der Gon, and Thomas Röckmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5051–5073, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5051-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5051-2023, 2023
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Measurement methods are increasingly deployed to verify reported methane emissions of gas leaks. This study describes unique advantages and limitations of three methods. Two methods are rapidly deployed, but uncertainties and biases exist for some leak locations. In contrast, the suction method could accurately determine leak rates in principle. However, this method, which provides data for the German emission inventory, creates an overall low bias in our study due to non-random site selection.
Max Müller, Stefan Weigl, Jennifer Müller-Williams, Matthias Lindauer, Thomas Rück, Simon Jobst, Rudolf Bierl, and Frank-Michael Matysik
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4263–4270, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4263-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4263-2023, 2023
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Over a period of 5 d, a photoacoustic methane sensor was compared with a Picarro cavity ring-down (G2301) spectrometer. Both devices measured the ambient methane concentration at the meteorological observatory Hohenpeißenberg. Cross-sensitivities on the photoacoustic signal, due to fluctuating ambient humidity, were compensated by applying the CoNRad algorithm. The results show that photoacoustic sensors have the potential for accurate and precise greenhouse gas monitoring.
Antje Hoheisel, Cedric Couret, Bryan Hellack, and Martina Schmidt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2399–2413, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2399-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2399-2023, 2023
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High-precision CO2, CH4 and CO measurements have been carried out at Zugspitze for decades. New technologies make it possible to analyse these gases with high temporal resolution. This allows the detection of local pollution. To this end, measurements have been performed on the mountain ridge (ZGR) and are compared to routine measurements at the Schneefernerhaus (ZSF). Careful manual flagging of pollution events in the ZSF data leads to consistency with the little influenced ZGR time series.
Róisín Commane, Andrew Hallward-Driemeier, and Lee T. Murray
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1431–1441, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1431-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1431-2023, 2023
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Methane / ethane ratios can be used to identify and partition the different sources of methane, especially in areas with natural gas mixed with biogenic methane emissions, such as cities. We tested three commercially available laser-based analyzers for sensitivity, precision, size, power requirement, ease of use on mobile platforms, and expertise needed to operate the instrument, and we make recommendations for use in various situations.
Yarong Peng, Hongli Wang, Yaqin Gao, Shengao Jing, Shuhui Zhu, Dandan Huang, Peizhi Hao, Shengrong Lou, Tiantao Cheng, Cheng Huang, and Xuan Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 15–28, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-15-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-15-2023, 2023
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This work examined the phase partitioning behaviors of organic compounds at hourly resolution in ambient conditions with the use of the CHemical Analysis of aeRosols ONline (CHARON) inlet coupled to a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS). Properly accounting for the neutral losses of small moieties during the molecular feature extraction from PTR mass spectra could significantly reduce uncertainties associated with the gas–particle partitioning measurements.
Stuart N. Riddick, Riley Ancona, Mercy Mbua, Clay S. Bell, Aidan Duggan, Timothy L. Vaughn, Kristine Bennett, and Daniel J. Zimmerle
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6285–6296, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6285-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6285-2022, 2022
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This describes controlled release experiments at the METEC facility in Fort Collins, USA, that investigates the accuracy and precision of five methods commonly used to measure methane emissions. Methods include static/dynamic chambers, hi flow sampling, a backward Lagrangian stochastic method, and a Gaussian plume method. This is the first time that methods for measuring CH4 emissions from point sources less than 200 g CH4 h−1 have been quantitively assessed against references and each other.
Broghan M. Erland, Cristen Adams, Andrea Darlington, Mackenzie L. Smith, Andrew K. Thorpe, Gregory R. Wentworth, Steve Conley, John Liggio, Shao-Meng Li, Charles E. Miller, and John A. Gamon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5841–5859, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5841-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5841-2022, 2022
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Accurately estimating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is essential to reaching net-zero goals to combat the climate crisis. Airborne box-flights are ideal for assessing regional GHG emissions, as they can attain small error. We compare two box-flight algorithms and found they produce similar results, but daily variability must be considered when deriving emissions inventories. Increasing the consistency and agreement between airborne methods moves us closer to achieving more accurate estimates.
Daniel Furuta, Tofigh Sayahi, Jinsheng Li, Bruce Wilson, Albert A. Presto, and Jiayu Li
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5117–5128, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5117-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5117-2022, 2022
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Methane is a major greenhouse gas and contributor to climate change with various human-caused and natural sources. Currently, atmospheric methane is expensive to sense. We investigate repurposing cheap methane safety sensors for atmospheric sensing, finding several promising sensors and identifying some of the challenges in this approach. This work will help in developing inexpensive sensor networks for methane monitoring, which will aid in reducing methane leaks and emissions.
Clare E. Singer, Benjamin W. Clouser, Sergey M. Khaykin, Martina Krämer, Francesco Cairo, Thomas Peter, Alexey Lykov, Christian Rolf, Nicole Spelten, Armin Afchine, Simone Brunamonti, and Elisabeth J. Moyer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4767–4783, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4767-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4767-2022, 2022
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In situ measurements of water vapor in the upper troposphere are necessary to study cloud formation and hydration of the stratosphere but challenging due to cold–dry conditions. We compare measurements from three water vapor instruments from the StratoClim campaign in 2017. In clear sky (clouds), point-by-point differences were <1.5±8 % (<1±8 %). This excellent agreement allows detection of fine-scale structures required to understand the impact of convection on stratospheric water vapor.
Sebastian Diez, Stuart E. Lacy, Thomas J. Bannan, Michael Flynn, Tom Gardiner, David Harrison, Nicholas Marsden, Nicholas A. Martin, Katie Read, and Pete M. Edwards
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4091–4105, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4091-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4091-2022, 2022
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Regardless of the cost of the measuring instrument, there are no perfect measurements. For this reason, we compare the quality of the information provided by cheap devices when they are used to measure air pollutants and we try to emphasise that before judging the potential usefulness of the devices, the user must specify his own needs. Since commonly used performance indices/metrics can be misleading in qualifying this, we propose complementary visual analysis to the more commonly used metrics.
Ashley S. Bittner, Eben S. Cross, David H. Hagan, Carl Malings, Eric Lipsky, and Andrew P. Grieshop
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3353–3376, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3353-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3353-2022, 2022
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We present findings from a 1-year pilot deployment of low-cost integrated air quality sensor packages in rural Malawi using calibration models developed during collocation with US regulatory monitors. We compare the results with data from remote sensing products and previous field studies. We conclude that while the remote calibration approach can help extract useful data, great care is needed when assessing low-cost sensor data collected in regions without reference instrumentation.
Noah Bernays, Daniel A. Jaffe, Irina Petropavlovskikh, and Peter Effertz
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3189–3192, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3189-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3189-2022, 2022
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Ozone is an important pollutant that impacts millions of people worldwide. It is therefore important to ensure accurate measurements. A recent surge in wildfire activity in the USA has resulted in significant enhancements in ozone concentration. However given the nature of wildfire smoke, there are questions about our ability to accurately measure ozone. In this comment, we discuss possible biases in the UV measurements of ozone in the presence of smoke.
Gérard Ancellet, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Herman G. J. Smit, Ryan M. Stauffer, Roeland Van Malderen, Renaud Bodichon, and Andrea Pazmiño
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3105–3120, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3105-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3105-2022, 2022
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The 1991–2021 Observatoire de Haute Provence electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesonde data have been homogenized according to the recommendations of the Ozonesonde Data Quality Assessment panel. Comparisons with ground-based instruments also measuring ozone at the same station (lidar, surface measurements) and with colocated satellite observations show the benefits of this homogenization. Remaining differences between ECC and other observations in the stratosphere are also discussed.
Horim Kim, Michael Müller, Stephan Henne, and Christoph Hüglin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2979–2992, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2979-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2979-2022, 2022
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In this study, the performance of electrochemical sensors for NO and NO2 for measuring air quality was determined over a longer operating period. The performance of NO sensors remained reliable for more than 18 months. However, the NO2 sensors showed decreasing performance over time. During deployment, we found that the NO2 sensors can distinguish general pollution levels, but they proved unsuitable for accurate measurements due to significant biases.
Randulph Morales, Jonas Ravelid, Katarina Vinkovic, Piotr Korbeń, Béla Tuzson, Lukas Emmenegger, Huilin Chen, Martina Schmidt, Sebastian Humbel, and Dominik Brunner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2177–2198, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2177-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2177-2022, 2022
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Mapping trace gas emission plumes using in situ measurements from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is an emerging and attractive possibility to quantify emissions from localized sources. We performed an extensive controlled-release experiment to develop an optimal quantification method and to determine the related uncertainties under various environmental and sampling conditions. Our approach was successful in quantifying local methane sources from drone-based measurements.
Junlei Zhan, Yongchun Liu, Wei Ma, Xin Zhang, Xuezhong Wang, Fang Bi, Yujie Zhang, Zhenhai Wu, and Hong Li
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1511–1520, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1511-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1511-2022, 2022
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Our study investigated the O3 formation sensitivity in Beijing using a random forest model coupled with the reactivity of volatile organic
compound (VOC) species. Results found that random forest accurately predicted O3 concentration when initial VOCs were considered, and relative importance correlated well with O3 formation potential. The O3 isopleth curves calculated by the random forest model were generally comparable with those calculated by the box model.
Daniel R. Peters, Olalekan A. M. Popoola, Roderic L. Jones, Nicholas A. Martin, Jim Mills, Elizabeth R. Fonseca, Amy Stidworthy, Ella Forsyth, David Carruthers, Megan Dupuy-Todd, Felicia Douglas, Katie Moore, Rishabh U. Shah, Lauren E. Padilla, and Ramón A. Alvarez
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 321–334, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-321-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-321-2022, 2022
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We present more than 2 years of NO2 pollution measurements from a sensor network in Greater London and compare results to an extensive network of expensive reference-grade monitors. We show the ability of our lower-cost network to generate robust insights about local air pollution. We also show how irregularities in sensor performance lead to some uncertainty in results and demonstrate ways that future users can characterize and mitigate uncertainties to get the most value from sensor data.
Timothy G. Pernini, T. Scott Zaccheo, Jeremy Dobler, and Nathan Blume
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 225–240, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-225-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-225-2022, 2022
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We demonstrate a novel approach to estimating emissions from oil sands operations that utilizes the GreenLITE™ gas concentration measurement system and an atmospheric model. While deployed at a facility in the Athabasca region of Alberta, Canada, CH4 emissions from a tailings pond were estimated to be 7.2 t/d for July–October 2019, and 5.1 t/d for March–July 2020. CH4 emissions from an open-pit mine were estimated to be 24.6 t/d for September–October 2019.
Wengang Zhang, Ling Wang, Yang Yu, Guirong Xu, Xiuqing Hu, Zhikang Fu, and Chunguang Cui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7821–7834, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7821-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7821-2021, 2021
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Global precipitable water vapor (PWV) derived from MERSI-II (Medium Resolution Spectral Imager) is compared with PWV from the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA). Our results show a good agreement between PWV from MERSI-II and IGRA and that MERSI-II PWV is slightly underestimated on the whole, especially in summer. The bias between MERSI-II and IGRA grows with a larger spatial distance between the footprint of the satellite and the IGRA station, as well as increasing PWV.
Trevor W. Coates, Monzurul Alam, Thomas K. Flesch, and Guillermo Hernandez-Ramirez
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7147–7152, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7147-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7147-2021, 2021
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A field study tested two footprint models for calculating surface emissions from downwind flux measurements. Emission rates from a 10 × 10 m synthetic source were estimated with the simple Kormann–Meixner model and a sophisticated Lagrangian stochastic model. Both models underestimated emissions by approximately 30 %, and no statistical differences were observed between the models. Footprint models are critically important for interpreting eddy covariance measurements.
Teles C. Furlani, Patrick R. Veres, Kathryn E. R. Dawe, J. Andrew Neuman, Steven S. Brown, Trevor C. VandenBoer, and Cora J. Young
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5859–5871, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5859-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5859-2021, 2021
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This study characterized and validated a commercial spectroscopic instrument for the measurement of hydrogen chloride (HCl) in the atmosphere. Near the Earth’s surface, HCl acts as the dominant reservoir for other chlorine-containing reactive chemicals that play an important role in atmospheric chemistry. The properties of HCl make it challenging to measure. This instrument can overcome many of these challenges, enabling reliable HCl measurements.
Marvin Glowania, Franz Rohrer, Hans-Peter Dorn, Andreas Hofzumahaus, Frank Holland, Astrid Kiendler-Scharr, Andreas Wahner, and Hendrik Fuchs
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4239–4253, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4239-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4239-2021, 2021
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Three instruments that use different techniques to measure gaseous formaldehyde concentrations were compared in experiments in the atmospheric simulation chamber SAPHIR at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The results demonstrated the need to correct the baseline in measurements by instruments that use the Hantzsch reaction or make use of cavity ring-down spectroscopy. After applying corrections, all three methods gave accurate and precise measurements within their specifications.
Attilio Naccarato, Antonella Tassone, Maria Martino, Sacha Moretti, Antonella Macagnano, Emiliano Zampetti, Paolo Papa, Joshua Avossa, Nicola Pirrone, Michelle Nerentorp, John Munthe, Ingvar Wängberg, Geoff W. Stupple, Carl P. J. Mitchell, Adam R. Martin, Alexandra Steffen, Diana Babi, Eric M. Prestbo, Francesca Sprovieri, and Frank Wania
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3657–3672, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3657-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3657-2021, 2021
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Mercury monitoring in support of the Minamata Convention requires effective and reliable analytical tools. Passive sampling is a promising approach for creating a sustainable long-term network for atmospheric mercury with improved spatial resolution and global coverage. In this study the analytical performance of three passive air samplers (CNR-PAS, IVL-PAS, and MerPAS) was assessed over extended deployment periods and the accuracy of concentrations was judged by comparison with active sampling.
Mei Bai, José I. Velazco, Trevor W. Coates, Frances A. Phillips, Thomas K. Flesch, Julian Hill, David G. Mayer, Nigel W. Tomkins, Roger S. Hegarty, and Deli Chen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3469–3479, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3469-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3469-2021, 2021
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The development and validation of management practices to mitigate methane (CH4) emissions from livestock require accurate emission measurements. We compared the inverse dispersion modelling (IDM) and tracer-ratio techniques to measure CH4 emissions from cattle. Both measurements agreed well but were higher than IPCC estimates. We suggest that the IDM approach can provide an accurate method of estimating cattle emissions, and IPCC estimates may have larger uncertainties.
Yuan You, Ralf M. Staebler, Samar G. Moussa, James Beck, and Richard L. Mittermeier
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1879–1892, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1879-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1879-2021, 2021
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Tailings ponds in the Alberta oil sands can be significant sources of methane, an important greenhouse gas. This paper describes a 1-month study conducted in 2017 to measure methane emissions from a pond using a variety of micrometeorological flux methods and demonstrates some advantages of these methods over flux chambers.
Christoph Häni, Marcel Bühler, Albrecht Neftel, Christof Ammann, and Thomas Kupper
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1733–1741, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1733-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1733-2021, 2021
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Short summary
The use of low-cost sensors for air pollution research has outpaced our understanding of their capabilities and limitations under real-world conditions. Here we describe the deployment, calibration and evaluation of electrochemical sensors on the Island of Hawai‘i. We obtain excellent performance (RMSE < 7 ppb, r2 = 0.997) across a wide dynamic range (1 ppb–2 ppm). We introduce a hybrid regression algorithm which works across a large dynamic range and shows little decay in sensitivity over time.
The use of low-cost sensors for air pollution research has outpaced our understanding of their...
