Articles | Volume 8, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-987-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-987-2015
© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Measurements of CH3O2NO2 in the upper troposphere
B. A. Nault
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
C. Garland
Department of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
S. E. Pusede
Department of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
now at: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA
P. J. Wooldridge
Department of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
K. Ullmann
Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
S. R. Hall
Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
Department of Chemistry, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA
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Viral Shah, Daniel J. Jacob, Ruijun Dang, Lok N. Lamsal, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, K. Folkert Boersma, Sebastian D. Eastham, Thibaud M. Fritz, Chelsea Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Ilana B. Pollack, Benjamin A. Nault, Ronald C. Cohen, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Simone T. Andersen, Lucy J. Carpenter, Tomás Sherwen, and Mat J. Evans
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Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, J. Andrew Neuman, Steven S. Brown, Hannah M. Allen, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Matthew M. Coggon, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Jessica B. Gilman, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Hongyu Guo, Hannah A. Halliday, Thomas F. Hanisco, Christopher D. Holmes, L. Gregory Huey, Jose L. Jimenez, Aaron D. Lamplugh, Young Ro Lee, Jakob Lindaas, Richard H. Moore, Benjamin A. Nault, John B. Nowak, Demetrios Pagonis, Pamela S. Rickly, Michael A. Robinson, Andrew W. Rollins, Vanessa Selimovic, Jason M. St. Clair, David Tanner, Krystal T. Vasquez, Patrick R. Veres, Carsten Warneke, Paul O. Wennberg, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Caroline C. Womack, Lu Xu, Kyle J. Zarzana, and Thomas B. Ryerson
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Katherine R. Travis, James H. Crawford, Gao Chen, Carolyn E. Jordan, Benjamin A. Nault, Hwajin Kim, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jack E. Dibb, Jung-Hun Woo, Younha Kim, Shixian Zhai, Xuan Wang, Erin E. McDuffie, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Saewung Kim, Isobel J. Simpson, Donald R. Blake, Limseok Chang, and Michelle J. Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7933–7958, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7933-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7933-2022, 2022
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The 2016 Korea–United States Air Quality (KORUS-AQ) field campaign provided a unique set of observations to improve our understanding of PM2.5 pollution in South Korea. Models typically have errors in simulating PM2.5 in this region, which is of concern for the development of control measures. We use KORUS-AQ observations to improve our understanding of the mechanisms driving PM2.5 and the implications of model errors for determining PM2.5 that is attributable to local or foreign sources.
Douglas A. Day, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Brett B. Palm, Weiwei Hu, Hongyu Guo, Paul J. Wooldridge, Ronald C. Cohen, Kenneth S. Docherty, J. Alex Huffman, Suzane S. de Sá, Scot T. Martin, and Jose L. Jimenez
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 459–483, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-459-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-459-2022, 2022
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Particle-phase nitrates are an important component of atmospheric aerosols and chemistry. In this paper, we systematically explore the application of aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) to quantify the organic and inorganic nitrate fractions of aerosols in the atmosphere. While AMS has been used for a decade to quantify nitrates, methods are not standardized. We make recommendations for a more universal approach based on this analysis of a large range of field and laboratory observations.
Dongwook Kim, Changmin Cho, Seokhan Jeong, Soojin Lee, Benjamin A. Nault, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Jason C. Schroder, Jose L. Jimenez, Rainer Volkamer, Donald R. Blake, Armin Wisthaler, Alan Fried, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Sally E. Pusede, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, L. Gregory Huey, David J. Tanner, Jack Dibb, Christoph J. Knote, and Kyung-Eun Min
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 805–821, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-805-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-805-2022, 2022
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CHOCHO was simulated using a 0-D box model constrained by measurements during the KORUS-AQ mission. CHOCHO concentration was high in large cities, aromatics being the most important precursors. Loss path to aerosol was the highest sink, contributing to ~ 20 % of secondary organic aerosol formation. Our work highlights that simple CHOCHO surface uptake approach is valid only for low aerosol conditions and more work is required to understand CHOCHO solubility in high-aerosol conditions.
Shixian Zhai, Daniel J. Jacob, Jared F. Brewer, Ke Li, Jonathan M. Moch, Jhoon Kim, Seoyoung Lee, Hyunkwang Lim, Hyun Chul Lee, Su Keun Kuk, Rokjin J. Park, Jaein I. Jeong, Xuan Wang, Pengfei Liu, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Jun Meng, Randall V. Martin, Katherine R. Travis, Johnathan W. Hair, Bruce E. Anderson, Jack E. Dibb, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jung-Hun Woo, Younha Kim, Qiang Zhang, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16775–16791, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16775-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16775-2021, 2021
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Geostationary satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) has tremendous potential for monitoring surface fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Our study explored the physical relationship between AOD and PM2.5 by integrating data from surface networks, aircraft, and satellites with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. We quantitatively showed that accurate simulation of aerosol size distributions, boundary layer depths, relative humidity, coarse particles, and diurnal variations in PM2.5 are essential.
Charles A. Brock, Karl D. Froyd, Maximilian Dollner, Christina J. Williamson, Gregory Schill, Daniel M. Murphy, Nicholas J. Wagner, Agnieszka Kupc, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jason C. Schroder, Douglas A. Day, Derek J. Price, Bernadett Weinzierl, Joshua P. Schwarz, Joseph M. Katich, Siyuan Wang, Linghan Zeng, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Eric Scheuer, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, ThaoPaul Bui, Jonathan M. Dean-Day, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilann Bourgeois, Bruce C. Daube, Róisín Commane, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15023–15063, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, 2021
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The Atmospheric Tomography Mission was an airborne study that mapped the chemical composition of the remote atmosphere. From this, we developed a comprehensive description of aerosol properties that provides a unique, global-scale dataset against which models can be compared. The data show the polluted nature of the remote atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere and quantify the contributions of sea salt, dust, soot, biomass burning particles, and pollution particles to the haziness of the sky.
Alejandra Velazquez-Garcia, Chenjie Yu, Sarah Tinorua, Hichem Bouzidi, Eleonora Aruffo, Piero Di Carlo, Peter DeCarlo, Benjamin A. Nault, Thierry Bourrianne, Kevin Tu, Edouard Pangui, Diana L. Pereira, Mathieu Cazaunau, Ludovico Di Antonio, Guillaume Siour, Matthias Beekmann, Astrid Bauville, Christopher Cantrell, Paola Formenti, Vincent Michoud, and Cyrielle Denjean
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4423, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-4423, 2026
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As city air pollution travels downwind, its climate impact evolves. Using a research aircraft, we tracked the Paris pollution plume and found that sunlight rapidly transforms urban emissions, forming secondary organic particles that absorb more sunlight within six hours. These findings show that urban pollution changes chemically during transport, providing key constraints to improve future climate models.
Chenjie Yu, Ludovico Di Antonio, Peter F. DeCarlo, Benjamin A. Nault, Alejandra Velazquez-Garcia, Eleonora Aruffo, Piero Di Carlo, Cyrielle Denjean, Sarah Tinorua, Thierry Bourrianne, Diana L. Pereira, Kevin Tu, Edouard Pangui, Mathieu Cazaunau, Astrid Bauville, Noël Grand, Antonin Bergé, Claudia Di Biagio, Aline Gratien, Matthias Beekmann, Guillaume Siour, Gilles Foret, Barbara D'Anna, Julien Kammer, Huihui Wu, Christopher Cantrell, Paola Formenti, and Vincent Michoud
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3147, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3147, 2026
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This study used coordinated airborne and ground-based measurements in Paris and its downwind regions to quantify the effects of 2–6 h of urban plume aging on aerosol properties. Aging enhanced secondary organic aerosol production and PM1 mass and shifted optical properties toward higher SSA, higher real and lower imaginary refractive indices, and stronger brown carbon absorption. These results highlight the need to account for aerosol aging in atmospheric models and remote-sensing retrievals.
Young Ro Lee, Linda Arterburn, Masayuki Takeuchi, David J. Tanner, James M. Roberts, Behrooz Roozitalab, Daun Jeong, Alan J. Hills, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Eric C. Apel, Simone Meinardi, Barbara Barletta, Nicola J. Blake, Donald R. Blake, Saewung Kim, Wojciech Wojnowski, Felix Piel, Armin Wisthaler, Katherine Ball, John D. Crounse, Paul O. Wennberg, Jason Miech, Yonghoon Choi, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Abby Sebol, Erin R. Delaria, Reem A. Hannun, Jason M. St. Clair, Glenn M. Wolfe, Changmin Cho, Courtney Owen, Kirk Lesko, Alessandro Franchin, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, Richard Moore, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Guy Symonds, Dongwook Kim, Douglas A. Day, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Kirk Ullmann, Samuel R. Hall, James H. Crawford, and L. Gregory Huey
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 8695–8715, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8695-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-8695-2026, 2026
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We flew a large variety of instruments on the NASA DC-8 research aircraft to measure pollution over South Korea in the winter of 2024. This works focuses on acyl peroxynitrates (PANs for short) which are formed by chemistry in air. We found high levels of PANs often associated with industrial emissions of pollutants such as ethanol and ethylene oxide. This work helps to understand how to reduce pollution of this sort.
Duseong S. Jo, John J. Orlando, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Louisa K. Emmons, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Eric C. Apel, Alan J. Hills, Kirk Ullmann, L. Gregory Huey, Claire Granier, Chelsea R. Thompson, and Jeff Peischl
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1868, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1868, 2026
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C4-C6 alkane hydrocarbons are important precursors of air pollution, but most global atmospheric chemistry models represent them using a single lumped surrogate compound, limiting detailed simulation of their oxidation products. We developed a new chemical mechanism that explicitly treats individual C4-C6 alkane species in a global model. This explicit treatment substantially changes the simulated budgets of key oxygenated compounds such as methyl ethyl ketone.
Changmin Cho, Alessandro Franchin, Frank Flocke, Kirk Lesko, Courtney Owen, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Eric C. Apel, Alan J. Hills, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Behrooz Roozitalab, Daun Jeong, Glenn S. Diskin, Yonghoon Choi, Joshua P. DiGangi, Jason Miech, Glenn M. Wolfe, Thomas F. Hanisco, Jason M. St. Clair, Jin Liao, Erin R. Delaria, Abby Sebol, Reem A. Hannun, Paul O. Wennberg, Katherine Ball, Young Ro Lee, L. Gregory Huey, David J. Tanner, Linda Arterburn, Donald R. Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Barbara Barletta, Simone Meinardi, Kyung-Eun Min, Heejoo Kang, Woohui Nam, Armin Wisthaler, Felix Piel, Wojciech Wojnowski, Jack Dibb, and James Crawford
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 6097–6116, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6097-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-6097-2026, 2026
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Ozone pollution is a challenge in Asian cities due to its nonlinear response to precursor controls. Using aircraft measurements, we examined how ozone production depends on nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds using a new isopleth-based approach. Ozone production is limited by nitrogen oxides in Metro Manila and Tainan–Kaohsiung, mixed in Bangkok, and limited by volatile organic compounds in Seoul. These results inform city-specific control strategies to reduce ozone in urban areas.
Xu-Cheng He, Nathan Luke Abraham, Han Ding, Maria R. Russo, Daniel P. Grosvenor, Yao Ge, Xuemei Wang, Anthony C. Jones, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin Nault, Agnieszka Kupc, Donald Blake, Jose L. Jimenez, Christina J. Williamson, James Weber, Alexander T. Archibald, and Hamish Gordon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 3805–3851, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3805-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3805-2026, 2026
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Aerosols affect clouds and climate. However, current climate models still struggle to simulate them accurately. We used aircraft data from a global mission to evaluate how well the UK Earth System Model represents aerosols and their precursors. Our results show that the model misses key formation processes in clean ocean regions, suggesting that future improvements should focus on better representing how aerosols form naturally in the atmosphere.
Jan-Lukas Tirpitz, Nathaniel Brockway, Santo Fedele Colosimo, Robert Spurr, Matt Christi, Samuel Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Vijay Natraj, Nicolas Theys, Johnathan Hair, Taylor Shingler, Rodney Weber, Ruchen Zhu, Jack Dibb, Richard Moore, Elizabeth Wiggins, and Jochen Stutz
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5541, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5541, 2026
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This study applies a novel remote sensing algorithm to airborne radiation measurements performed in wildfire plumes, to retrieve the absorptive properties of biomass burning aerosols. The results provide new insights on the magnitude, wavelength dependence, and atmospheric aging of the imaginary refractive index, volume absorption cross-section, and single scattering albedo of the smoke particles. Furthermore, potential and limitations of the applied method are discussed.
Friedrich Klappenbach, Jia Chen, Moritz Makowski, Andreas Luther, Ronald C. Cohen, Jonathan E. Franklin, Steven Wofsy, and Taylor Jones
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-204, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-204, 2026
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This work presents a method to infer the upwind distance of emission sources from observed peak enhancements in atmospheric trace gas measurements. Using meteorological model output, the expected dilution of emissions from candidate source locations is quantified and compared with the observed concentration signals. The method enables the identification of plausible source locations and provides quantitative estimates of their emission strengths.
Joseph O. Palmo, Colette L. Heald, Donald R. Blake, Ilann Bourgeois, Matthew Coggon, Jeff Collett, Frank Flocke, Alan Fried, Georgios Gkatzelis, Samuel Hall, Lu Hu, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, I-Ting Ku, Benjamin Nault, Brett Palm, Jeff Peischl, Ilana Pollack, Amy Sullivan, Joel Thornton, Carsten Warneke, Armin Wisthaler, and Lu Xu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 17107–17124, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17107-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17107-2025, 2025
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This study investigates ozone production within wildfire smoke plumes as they age, using both aircraft observations and models. We find that the chemical environment and resulting ozone production within smoke changes as plumes evolve, with implications for climate and public health.
Matthew J. Rowlinson, Lucy J. Carpenter, Mat J. Evans, James D. Lee, Simone T. Andersen, Tomas Sherwen, Anna B. Callaghan, Roberto Sommariva, William Bloss, Siqi Hou, Leigh R. Crilley, Klaus Pfeilsticker, Benjamin Weyland, Thomas B. Ryerson, Patrick R. Veres, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Hongyu Guo, Benjamin A. Nault, Jose L. Jimenez, and Khanneh Wadinga Fomba
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 16945–16968, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16945-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-16945-2025, 2025
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HONO is key to tropospheric chemistry. Observations show high HONO concentrations in remote air, possibly explained by nitrate aerosol photolysis. We use observations to parameterize nitrate photolysis, evaluating simulated HONO against observations from multiple sources. We show improved agreement with observed HONO, but overestimates in NOx and O3, beyond observational constraints. This implies uncertainties in the NOx budget and our understanding of atmospheric chemistry.
Jiaqi Shen, Ronald C. Cohen, Glenn M. Wolfe, and Xiaomeng Jin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 8701–8718, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8701-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-8701-2025, 2025
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This study shows large chemical and radiative effects of smoke aerosols from fires on near-surface ozone production. Aerosol loading and NOx levels are identified as the primary factors influencing these effects. Furthermore, we show that the ratio of surface PM2.5 to NO2 tropospheric column can be used as an indicator for identifying aerosol-dominated regimes, facilitating the assessment of aerosol impacts on ozone formation through satellite observations.
Jan-Lukas Tirpitz, Santo Fedele Colosimo, Nathaniel Brockway, Robert Spurr, Matt Christi, Samuel Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Johnathan Hair, Taylor Shingler, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Richard Moore, Elizabeth Wiggins, Vijay Natraj, Nicolas Theys, and Jochen Stutz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1989–2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1989-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1989-2025, 2025
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We combine plume composition data from the 2019 NASA FIREX-AQ campaign with state-of-the-art radiative transfer modeling techniques to calculate distributions of actinic flux and photolysis frequencies in a wildfire plume. Excellent agreement of the model and observations demonstrates the applicability of this approach to constrain photochemistry in such plumes. We identify limiting factors for the modeling accuracy and discuss spatial and spectral features of the distributions.
Olivia G. Norman, Colette L. Heald, Solomon Bililign, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Hugh Coe, Marc N. Fiddler, Jaime R. Green, Jose L. Jimenez, Katharina Kaiser, Jin Liao, Ann M. Middlebrook, Benjamin A. Nault, John B. Nowak, Johannes Schneider, and André Welti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 771–795, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-771-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-771-2025, 2025
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This study finds that one component of secondary inorganic aerosols, nitrate, is greatly overestimated by a global atmospheric chemistry model compared to observations from 11 flight campaigns. None of the loss and production pathways explored can explain the nitrate bias alone. The model’s inability to capture the variability in the observations remains and requires future investigation to avoid biases in policy-related studies (i.e., air quality, health, climate impacts of these aerosols).
Deepangsu Chatterjee, Randall V. Martin, Chi Li, Dandan Zhang, Haihui Zhu, Daven K. Henze, James H. Crawford, Ronald C. Cohen, Lok N. Lamsal, and Alexander M. Cede
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12687–12706, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12687-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12687-2024, 2024
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We investigate the hourly variation of NO2 columns and surface concentrations by applying the GEOS-Chem model to interpret aircraft and ground-based measurements over the US and Pandora sun photometer measurements over the US, Europe, and Asia. Corrections to the Pandora columns and finer model resolution improve the modeled representation of the summertime hourly variation of total NO2 columns to explain the weaker hourly variation in NO2 columns than at the surface.
Namrata Shanmukh Panji, Deborah F. McGlynn, Laura E. R. Barry, Todd M. Scanlon, Manuel T. Lerdau, Sally E. Pusede, and Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12495–12507, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12495-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12495-2024, 2024
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Climate change will bring about changes in parameters that are currently used in global-scale models to calculate biogenic emissions. This study seeks to understand the factors driving these models by comparing long-term datasets of biogenic compounds to modeled emissions. We note that the light-dependent fractions currently used in models do not accurately represent regional observations. We provide evidence for the time-dependent variation in this parameter for future modifications to models.
Katherine R. Travis, Benjamin A. Nault, James H. Crawford, Kelvin H. Bates, Donald R. Blake, Ronald C. Cohen, Alan Fried, Samuel R. Hall, L. Gregory Huey, Young Ro Lee, Simone Meinardi, Kyung-Eun Min, Isobel J. Simpson, and Kirk Ullman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9555–9572, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9555-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9555-2024, 2024
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Human activities result in the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that contribute to air pollution. Detailed VOC measurements were taken during a field study in South Korea. When compared to VOC inventories, large discrepancies showed underestimates from chemical products, liquefied petroleum gas, and long-range transport. Improved emissions and chemistry of these VOCs better described urban pollution. The new chemical scheme is relevant to urban areas and other VOC sources.
Benjamin A. Nault, Katherine R. Travis, James H. Crawford, Donald R. Blake, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Ronald C. Cohen, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Samuel R. Hall, L. Gregory Huey, Jose L. Jimenez, Kyung-Eun Min, Young Ro Lee, Isobel J. Simpson, Kirk Ullmann, and Armin Wisthaler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9573–9595, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9573-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9573-2024, 2024
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Ozone (O3) is a pollutant formed from the reactions of gases emitted from various sources. In urban areas, the density of human activities can increase the O3 formation rate (P(O3)), thus impacting air quality and health. Observations collected over Seoul, South Korea, are used to constrain P(O3). A high local P(O3) was found; however, local P(O3) was partly reduced due to compounds typically ignored. These observations also provide constraints for unmeasured compounds that will impact P(O3).
Qindan Zhu, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Matthew Coggon, Colin Harkins, Jordan Schnell, Jian He, Havala O. T. Pye, Meng Li, Barry Baker, Zachary Moon, Ravan Ahmadov, Eva Y. Pfannerstill, Bryan Place, Paul Wooldridge, Benjamin C. Schulze, Caleb Arata, Anthony Bucholtz, John H. Seinfeld, Carsten Warneke, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Lu Xu, Kristen Zuraski, Michael A. Robinson, J. Andrew Neuman, Patrick R. Veres, Jeff Peischl, Steven S. Brown, Allen H. Goldstein, Ronald C. Cohen, and Brian C. McDonald
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5265–5286, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5265-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5265-2024, 2024
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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) fuel the production of air pollutants like ozone and particulate matter. The representation of VOC chemistry remains challenging due to its complexity in speciation and reactions. Here, we develop a chemical mechanism, RACM2B-VCP, that better represents VOC chemistry in urban areas such as Los Angeles. We also discuss the contribution of VOCs emitted from volatile chemical products and other anthropogenic sources to total VOC reactivity and O3.
James M. Roberts, Siyuan Wang, Patrick R. Veres, J. Andrew Neuman, Michael A. Robinson, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea R. Thompson, Hannah M. Allen, John D. Crounse, Paul O. Wennberg, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Simone Meinardi, Isobel J. Simpson, and Donald Blake
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3421–3443, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3421-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3421-2024, 2024
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We measured cyanogen bromide (BrCN) in the troposphere for the first time. BrCN is a product of the same active bromine chemistry that destroys ozone and removes mercury in polar surface environments and is a previously unrecognized sink for active Br compounds. BrCN has an apparent lifetime against heterogeneous loss in the range 1–10 d, so it serves as a cumulative marker of Br-radical chemistry. Accounting for BrCN chemistry is an important part of understanding polar Br cycling.
Milan Y. Patel, Pietro F. Vannucci, Jinsol Kim, William M. Berelson, and Ronald C. Cohen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1051–1060, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1051-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1051-2024, 2024
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Low-cost particulate matter (PM) sensors are becoming increasingly common in community monitoring and atmospheric research, but these sensors require proper calibration to provide accurate reporting. Here, we propose a hygroscopic growth calibration scheme that evolves in time to account for seasonal changes in hygroscopic growth. In San Francisco and Los Angeles, CA, applying a seasonal hygroscopic growth calibration can account for sensor biases driven by the seasonal cycles in PM composition.
Huisheng Bian, Mian Chin, Peter R. Colarco, Eric C. Apel, Donald R. Blake, Karl Froyd, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Jose Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano Jost, Michael Lawler, Mingxu Liu, Marianne Tronstad Lund, Hitoshi Matsui, Benjamin A. Nault, Joyce E. Penner, Andrew W. Rollins, Gregory Schill, Ragnhild B. Skeie, Hailong Wang, Lu Xu, Kai Zhang, and Jialei Zhu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1717–1741, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1717-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1717-2024, 2024
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This work studies sulfur in the remote troposphere at global and seasonal scales using aircraft measurements and multi-model simulations. The goal is to understand the sulfur cycle over remote oceans, spread of model simulations, and observation–model discrepancies. Such an understanding and comparison with real observations are crucial to narrow down the uncertainties in model sulfur simulations and improve understanding of the sulfur cycle in atmospheric air quality, climate, and ecosystems.
Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Matthew M. Coggon, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Hannah Allen, Eric C. Apel, Megan M. Bela, Donald R. Blake, Ilann Bourgeois, Steven S. Brown, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jason M. St. Clair, James H. Crawford, John D. Crounse, Douglas A. Day, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Alan Fried, Jessica B. Gilman, Hongyu Guo, Johnathan W. Hair, Hannah S. Halliday, Thomas F. Hanisco, Reem Hannun, Alan Hills, L. Gregory Huey, Jose L. Jimenez, Joseph M. Katich, Aaron Lamplugh, Young Ro Lee, Jin Liao, Jakob Lindaas, Stuart A. McKeen, Tomas Mikoviny, Benjamin A. Nault, J. Andrew Neuman, John B. Nowak, Demetrios Pagonis, Jeff Peischl, Anne E. Perring, Felix Piel, Pamela S. Rickly, Michael A. Robinson, Andrew W. Rollins, Thomas B. Ryerson, Melinda K. Schueneman, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Joshua P. Schwarz, Kanako Sekimoto, Vanessa Selimovic, Taylor Shingler, David J. Tanner, Laura Tomsche, Krystal T. Vasquez, Patrick R. Veres, Rebecca Washenfelder, Petter Weibring, Paul O. Wennberg, Armin Wisthaler, Glenn M. Wolfe, Caroline C. Womack, Lu Xu, Katherine Ball, Robert J. Yokelson, and Carsten Warneke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 929–956, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-929-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-929-2024, 2024
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This study reports emissions of gases and particles from wildfires. These emissions are related to chemical proxies that can be measured by satellite and incorporated into models to improve predictions of wildfire impacts on air quality and climate.
Clara M. Nussbaumer, Bryan K. Place, Qindan Zhu, Eva Y. Pfannerstill, Paul Wooldridge, Benjamin C. Schulze, Caleb Arata, Ryan Ward, Anthony Bucholtz, John H. Seinfeld, Allen H. Goldstein, and Ronald C. Cohen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13015–13028, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13015-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13015-2023, 2023
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NOx is a precursor to hazardous tropospheric ozone and can be emitted from various anthropogenic sources. It is important to quantify NOx emissions in urban environments to improve the local air quality, which still remains a challenge, as sources are heterogeneous in space and time. In this study, we calculate NOx emissions over Los Angeles, based on aircraft measurements in June 2021, and compare them to a local emission inventory, which we find mostly overpredicts the measured values.
Eva Y. Pfannerstill, Caleb Arata, Qindan Zhu, Benjamin C. Schulze, Roy Woods, John H. Seinfeld, Anthony Bucholtz, Ronald C. Cohen, and Allen H. Goldstein
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12753–12780, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12753-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12753-2023, 2023
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The San Joaquin Valley is an agricultural area with poor air quality. Organic gases drive the formation of hazardous air pollutants. Agricultural emissions of these gases are not well understood and have rarely been quantified at landscape scale. By combining aircraft-based emission measurements with land cover information, we found mis- or unrepresented emission sources. Our results help in understanding of pollution sources and in improving predictions of air quality in agricultural regions.
Qindan Zhu, Bryan Place, Eva Y. Pfannerstill, Sha Tong, Huanxin Zhang, Jun Wang, Clara M. Nussbaumer, Paul Wooldridge, Benjamin C. Schulze, Caleb Arata, Anthony Bucholtz, John H. Seinfeld, Allen H. Goldstein, and Ronald C. Cohen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9669–9683, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9669-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9669-2023, 2023
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Nitrogen oxide (NOx) is a hazardous air pollutant, and it is the precursor of short-lived climate forcers like tropospheric ozone and aerosol particles. While NOx emissions from transportation has been strictly regulated, soil NOx emissions are overlooked. We use the airborne flux measurements to observe NOx emissions from highways and urban and cultivated soil land cover types. We show non-negligible soil NOx emissions, which are significantly underestimated in current model simulations.
Haihui Zhu, Randall V. Martin, Betty Croft, Shixian Zhai, Chi Li, Liam Bindle, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Rachel Y.-W. Chang, Bruce E. Anderson, Luke D. Ziemba, Johnathan W. Hair, Richard A. Ferrare, Chris A. Hostetler, Inderjeet Singh, Deepangsu Chatterjee, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jack E. Dibb, Joshua S. Schwarz, and Andrew Weinheimer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5023–5042, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5023-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5023-2023, 2023
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Particle size of atmospheric aerosol is important for estimating its climate and health effects, but simulating atmospheric aerosol size is computationally demanding. This study derives a simple parameterization of the size of organic and secondary inorganic ambient aerosol that can be applied to atmospheric models. Applying this parameterization allows a better representation of the global spatial pattern of aerosol size, as verified by ground and airborne measurements.
Chi Li, Randall V. Martin, Ronald C. Cohen, Liam Bindle, Dandan Zhang, Deepangsu Chatterjee, Hongjian Weng, and Jintai Lin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 3031–3049, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3031-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3031-2023, 2023
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Models are essential to diagnose the significant effects of nitrogen oxides (NOx) on air pollution. We use an air quality model to illustrate the variability of NOx resolution-dependent simulation biases; how these biases depend on specific chemical environments, driving mechanisms, and vertical variabilities; and how these biases affect the interpretation of satellite observations. High-resolution simulations are thus critical to accurately interpret NOx and its relevance to air quality.
Laura Tomsche, Felix Piel, Tomas Mikoviny, Claus J. Nielsen, Hongyu Guo, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Melinda K. Schueneman, Jose L. Jimenez, Hannah Halliday, Glenn Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, John B. Nowak, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Emily Gargulinski, Amber J. Soja, and Armin Wisthaler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2331–2343, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2331-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2331-2023, 2023
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Ammonia (NH3) is an important trace gas in the atmosphere and fires are among the poorly investigated sources. During the 2019 Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) aircraft campaign, we measured gaseous NH3 and particulate ammonium (NH4+) in smoke plumes emitted from 6 wildfires in the Western US and 66 small agricultural fires in the Southeastern US. We herein present a comprehensive set of emission factors of NH3 and NHx, where NHx = NH3 + NH4+.
Amir H. Souri, Matthew S. Johnson, Glenn M. Wolfe, James H. Crawford, Alan Fried, Armin Wisthaler, William H. Brune, Donald R. Blake, Andrew J. Weinheimer, Tijl Verhoelst, Steven Compernolle, Gaia Pinardi, Corinne Vigouroux, Bavo Langerock, Sungyeon Choi, Lok Lamsal, Lei Zhu, Shuai Sun, Ronald C. Cohen, Kyung-Eun Min, Changmin Cho, Sajeev Philip, Xiong Liu, and Kelly Chance
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1963–1986, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1963-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1963-2023, 2023
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We have rigorously characterized different sources of error in satellite-based HCHO / NO2 tropospheric columns, a widely used metric for diagnosing near-surface ozone sensitivity. Specifically, the errors were categorized/quantified into (i) an inherent chemistry error, (ii) the decoupled relationship between columns and the near-surface concentration, (iii) the spatial representativeness error of ground satellite pixels, and (iv) the satellite retrieval errors.
Viral Shah, Daniel J. Jacob, Ruijun Dang, Lok N. Lamsal, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, K. Folkert Boersma, Sebastian D. Eastham, Thibaud M. Fritz, Chelsea Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Ilana B. Pollack, Benjamin A. Nault, Ronald C. Cohen, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Simone T. Andersen, Lucy J. Carpenter, Tomás Sherwen, and Mat J. Evans
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1227–1257, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1227-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1227-2023, 2023
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NOx in the free troposphere (above 2 km) affects global tropospheric chemistry and the retrieval and interpretation of satellite NO2 measurements. We evaluate free tropospheric NOx in global atmospheric chemistry models and find that recycling NOx from its reservoirs over the oceans is faster than that simulated in the models, resulting in increases in simulated tropospheric ozone and OH. Over the U.S., free tropospheric NO2 contributes the majority of the tropospheric NO2 column in summer.
Deborah F. McGlynn, Graham Frazier, Laura E. R. Barry, Manuel T. Lerdau, Sally E. Pusede, and Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz
Biogeosciences, 20, 45–55, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-45-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-45-2023, 2023
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Using a custom-made gas chromatography flame ionization detector, 2 years of speciated hourly biogenic volatile organic compound data were collected in a forest in central Virginia. We identify diurnal and seasonal variability in the data, which is shown to impact atmospheric oxidant budgets. A comparison with emission models identified discrepancies with implications for model outcomes. We suggest increased monitoring of speciated biogenic volatile organic compounds to improve modeled results.
Pamela S. Rickly, Hongyu Guo, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jose L. Jimenez, Glenn M. Wolfe, Ryan Bennett, Ilann Bourgeois, John D. Crounse, Jack E. Dibb, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Maximilian Dollner, Emily M. Gargulinski, Samuel R. Hall, Hannah S. Halliday, Thomas F. Hanisco, Reem A. Hannun, Jin Liao, Richard Moore, Benjamin A. Nault, John B. Nowak, Jeff Peischl, Claire E. Robinson, Thomas Ryerson, Kevin J. Sanchez, Manuel Schöberl, Amber J. Soja, Jason M. St. Clair, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Kirk Ullmann, Paul O. Wennberg, Bernadett Weinzierl, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Edward L. Winstead, and Andrew W. Rollins
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15603–15620, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15603-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15603-2022, 2022
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Biomass burning sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission factors range from 0.27–1.1 g kg-1 C. Biomass burning SO2 can quickly form sulfate and organosulfur, but these pathways are dependent on liquid water content and pH. Hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS) appears to be directly emitted from some fire sources but is not the sole contributor to the organosulfur signal. It is shown that HMS and organosulfur chemistry may be an important S(IV) reservoir with the fate dependent on the surrounding conditions.
Helen L. Fitzmaurice and Ronald C. Cohen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15403–15411, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15403-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15403-2022, 2022
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We develop a novel method for finding heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) emission factors (g PM kg fuel) using regulatory sensor networks and publicly available traffic data. We find that particulate matter emission factors have decreased by a factor of ~ 9 in the past decade in the San Francisco Bay area. Because of the wide availability of similar data sets across the USA and globally, this method could be applied to other settings to understand long-term trends and regional differences in HDV emissions.
Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, J. Andrew Neuman, Steven S. Brown, Hannah M. Allen, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Matthew M. Coggon, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Jessica B. Gilman, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Hongyu Guo, Hannah A. Halliday, Thomas F. Hanisco, Christopher D. Holmes, L. Gregory Huey, Jose L. Jimenez, Aaron D. Lamplugh, Young Ro Lee, Jakob Lindaas, Richard H. Moore, Benjamin A. Nault, John B. Nowak, Demetrios Pagonis, Pamela S. Rickly, Michael A. Robinson, Andrew W. Rollins, Vanessa Selimovic, Jason M. St. Clair, David Tanner, Krystal T. Vasquez, Patrick R. Veres, Carsten Warneke, Paul O. Wennberg, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Elizabeth B. Wiggins, Caroline C. Womack, Lu Xu, Kyle J. Zarzana, and Thomas B. Ryerson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4901–4930, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4901-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4901-2022, 2022
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Understanding fire emission impacts on the atmosphere is key to effective air quality management and requires accurate measurements. We present a comparison of airborne measurements of key atmospheric species in ambient air and in fire smoke. We show that most instruments performed within instrument uncertainties. In some cases, further work is needed to fully characterize instrument performance. Comparing independent measurements using different techniques is important to assess their accuracy.
Katherine R. Travis, James H. Crawford, Gao Chen, Carolyn E. Jordan, Benjamin A. Nault, Hwajin Kim, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Jack E. Dibb, Jung-Hun Woo, Younha Kim, Shixian Zhai, Xuan Wang, Erin E. McDuffie, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Saewung Kim, Isobel J. Simpson, Donald R. Blake, Limseok Chang, and Michelle J. Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7933–7958, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7933-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7933-2022, 2022
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The 2016 Korea–United States Air Quality (KORUS-AQ) field campaign provided a unique set of observations to improve our understanding of PM2.5 pollution in South Korea. Models typically have errors in simulating PM2.5 in this region, which is of concern for the development of control measures. We use KORUS-AQ observations to improve our understanding of the mechanisms driving PM2.5 and the implications of model errors for determining PM2.5 that is attributable to local or foreign sources.
Glenn M. Wolfe, Thomas F. Hanisco, Heather L. Arkinson, Donald R. Blake, Armin Wisthaler, Tomas Mikoviny, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilana Pollack, Jeff Peischl, Paul O. Wennberg, John D. Crounse, Jason M. St. Clair, Alex Teng, L. Gregory Huey, Xiaoxi Liu, Alan Fried, Petter Weibring, Dirk Richter, James Walega, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, T. Paul Bui, Glenn Diskin, James R. Podolske, Glen Sachse, and Ronald C. Cohen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4253–4275, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4253-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4253-2022, 2022
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Smoke plumes are chemically complex. This work combines airborne observations of smoke plume composition with a photochemical model to probe the production of ozone and the fate of reactive gases in the outflow of a large wildfire. Model–measurement comparisons illustrate how uncertain emissions and chemical processes propagate into simulated chemical evolution. Results provide insight into how this system responds to perturbations, which can help guide future observation and modeling efforts.
Helen L. Fitzmaurice, Alexander J. Turner, Jinsol Kim, Katherine Chan, Erin R. Delaria, Catherine Newman, Paul Wooldridge, and Ronald C. Cohen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3891–3900, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3891-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3891-2022, 2022
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On-road emissions are thought to vary widely from existing predictions, as the effects of the age of the vehicle fleet, the performance of emission control systems, and variations in speed are difficult to assess under ambient driving conditions. We present an observational approach to characterize on-road emissions and show that the method is consistent with other approaches to within ~ 3 %.
Douglas A. Day, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Brett B. Palm, Weiwei Hu, Hongyu Guo, Paul J. Wooldridge, Ronald C. Cohen, Kenneth S. Docherty, J. Alex Huffman, Suzane S. de Sá, Scot T. Martin, and Jose L. Jimenez
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 459–483, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-459-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-459-2022, 2022
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Particle-phase nitrates are an important component of atmospheric aerosols and chemistry. In this paper, we systematically explore the application of aerosol mass spectrometry (AMS) to quantify the organic and inorganic nitrate fractions of aerosols in the atmosphere. While AMS has been used for a decade to quantify nitrates, methods are not standardized. We make recommendations for a more universal approach based on this analysis of a large range of field and laboratory observations.
Dongwook Kim, Changmin Cho, Seokhan Jeong, Soojin Lee, Benjamin A. Nault, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Douglas A. Day, Jason C. Schroder, Jose L. Jimenez, Rainer Volkamer, Donald R. Blake, Armin Wisthaler, Alan Fried, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Sally E. Pusede, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, L. Gregory Huey, David J. Tanner, Jack Dibb, Christoph J. Knote, and Kyung-Eun Min
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 805–821, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-805-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-805-2022, 2022
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CHOCHO was simulated using a 0-D box model constrained by measurements during the KORUS-AQ mission. CHOCHO concentration was high in large cities, aromatics being the most important precursors. Loss path to aerosol was the highest sink, contributing to ~ 20 % of secondary organic aerosol formation. Our work highlights that simple CHOCHO surface uptake approach is valid only for low aerosol conditions and more work is required to understand CHOCHO solubility in high-aerosol conditions.
Alexander J. Turner, Philipp Köhler, Troy S. Magney, Christian Frankenberg, Inez Fung, and Ronald C. Cohen
Biogeosciences, 18, 6579–6588, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-6579-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-6579-2021, 2021
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This work builds a high-resolution estimate (500 m) of gross primary productivity (GPP) over the US using satellite measurements of solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) between 2018 and 2020. We identify ecosystem-specific scaling factors for estimating gross primary productivity (GPP) from TROPOMI SIF. Extreme precipitation events drive four regional GPP anomalies that account for 28 % of year-to-year GPP differences across the US.
Jin Liao, Glenn M. Wolfe, Reem A. Hannun, Jason M. St. Clair, Thomas F. Hanisco, Jessica B. Gilman, Aaron Lamplugh, Vanessa Selimovic, Glenn S. Diskin, John B. Nowak, Hannah S. Halliday, Joshua P. DiGangi, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Christopher D. Holmes, Charles H. Fite, Anxhelo Agastra, Thomas B. Ryerson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Carsten Warneke, Matthew M. Coggon, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Kanako Sekimoto, Alan Fried, Dirk Richter, Petter Weibring, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Steven S. Brown, Caroline C. Womack, Michael A. Robinson, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Patrick R. Veres, and J. Andrew Neuman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18319–18331, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18319-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18319-2021, 2021
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Formaldehyde (HCHO) is an important oxidant precursor and affects the formation of O3 and other secondary pollutants in wildfire plumes. We disentangle the processes controlling HCHO evolution from wildfire plumes sampled by NASA DC-8 during FIREX-AQ. We find that OH abundance rather than normalized OH reactivity is the main driver of fire-to-fire variability in HCHO secondary production and estimate an effective HCHO yield per volatile organic compound molecule oxidized in wildfire plumes.
Shixian Zhai, Daniel J. Jacob, Jared F. Brewer, Ke Li, Jonathan M. Moch, Jhoon Kim, Seoyoung Lee, Hyunkwang Lim, Hyun Chul Lee, Su Keun Kuk, Rokjin J. Park, Jaein I. Jeong, Xuan Wang, Pengfei Liu, Gan Luo, Fangqun Yu, Jun Meng, Randall V. Martin, Katherine R. Travis, Johnathan W. Hair, Bruce E. Anderson, Jack E. Dibb, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jung-Hun Woo, Younha Kim, Qiang Zhang, and Hong Liao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16775–16791, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16775-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16775-2021, 2021
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Geostationary satellite aerosol optical depth (AOD) has tremendous potential for monitoring surface fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Our study explored the physical relationship between AOD and PM2.5 by integrating data from surface networks, aircraft, and satellites with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model. We quantitatively showed that accurate simulation of aerosol size distributions, boundary layer depths, relative humidity, coarse particles, and diurnal variations in PM2.5 are essential.
Zachary C. J. Decker, Michael A. Robinson, Kelley C. Barsanti, Ilann Bourgeois, Matthew M. Coggon, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Frank M. Flocke, Alessandro Franchin, Carley D. Fredrickson, Georgios I. Gkatzelis, Samuel R. Hall, Hannah Halliday, Christopher D. Holmes, L. Gregory Huey, Young Ro Lee, Jakob Lindaas, Ann M. Middlebrook, Denise D. Montzka, Richard Moore, J. Andrew Neuman, John B. Nowak, Brett B. Palm, Jeff Peischl, Felix Piel, Pamela S. Rickly, Andrew W. Rollins, Thomas B. Ryerson, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Kanako Sekimoto, Lee Thornhill, Joel A. Thornton, Geoffrey S. Tyndall, Kirk Ullmann, Paul Van Rooy, Patrick R. Veres, Carsten Warneke, Rebecca A. Washenfelder, Andrew J. Weinheimer, Elizabeth Wiggins, Edward Winstead, Armin Wisthaler, Caroline Womack, and Steven S. Brown
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16293–16317, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16293-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16293-2021, 2021
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To understand air quality impacts from wildfires, we need an accurate picture of how wildfire smoke changes chemically both day and night as sunlight changes the chemistry of smoke. We present a chemical analysis of wildfire smoke as it changes from midday through the night. We use aircraft observations from the FIREX-AQ field campaign with a chemical box model. We find that even under sunlight typical
nighttimechemistry thrives and controls the fate of key smoke plume chemical processes.
Deborah F. McGlynn, Laura E. R. Barry, Manuel T. Lerdau, Sally E. Pusede, and Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15755–15770, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15755-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15755-2021, 2021
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We present 1 year of hourly measurements of chemically resolved Biogenic volatile organic compound (BVOCs) between 15 September 2019 and 15 September 2020, collected at a research tower in central Virginia. Concentrations of a range of BVOCs are described and examined for their impact on atmospheric reactivity. The majority of reactivity comes from α-pinene and limonene, highlighting the importance of both concentration and structure in assessing atmospheric impacts of emissions.
Xiaomeng Jin, Qindan Zhu, and Ronald C. Cohen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15569–15587, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15569-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15569-2021, 2021
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We describe direct estimates of NOx emissions and lifetimes for biomass burning plumes using daily TROPOMI retrievals of NO2. Satellite-derived NOx emission factors are consistent with those from in situ measurements. We observe decreasing NOx lifetime with fire intensity, which is due to the increase in NOx abundance and radical production. Our findings suggest promise for applying space-based observations to track the emissions and chemical evolution of reactive nitrogen from wildfires.
Charles A. Brock, Karl D. Froyd, Maximilian Dollner, Christina J. Williamson, Gregory Schill, Daniel M. Murphy, Nicholas J. Wagner, Agnieszka Kupc, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano-Jost, Benjamin A. Nault, Jason C. Schroder, Douglas A. Day, Derek J. Price, Bernadett Weinzierl, Joshua P. Schwarz, Joseph M. Katich, Siyuan Wang, Linghan Zeng, Rodney Weber, Jack Dibb, Eric Scheuer, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, ThaoPaul Bui, Jonathan M. Dean-Day, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilann Bourgeois, Bruce C. Daube, Róisín Commane, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15023–15063, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15023-2021, 2021
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The Atmospheric Tomography Mission was an airborne study that mapped the chemical composition of the remote atmosphere. From this, we developed a comprehensive description of aerosol properties that provides a unique, global-scale dataset against which models can be compared. The data show the polluted nature of the remote atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere and quantify the contributions of sea salt, dust, soot, biomass burning particles, and pollution particles to the haziness of the sky.
Cited articles
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Short summary
We report the first atmospheric measurement of methyl peroxy nitrate (CH3O2NO2) and describe an experimental strategy to obtain NO2 observations free of methyl peroxy nitrate (CH3O2NO2). The accuracy of the CH3O2NO2 measurements are (+/- 40%) with a LOD of 15 pptv/min. We observe that CH3O2NO2 is ubiquitous in the upper troposphere with median mixing ratios of 100 to 200 pptv, and its composition to the total NOy budget is comparable to HNO3.
We report the first atmospheric measurement of methyl peroxy nitrate (CH3O2NO2) and describe an...