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The Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation from Forest Emissions Experiment (SOAFFEE)

 

Authors

Joel Thornton — University of Washington
John E Shilling — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Alla Zelenyuk-Imre — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Mikael Ehn — University of Helsinki
Tuukka Taneli Petaja — University of Helsinki
Chris Cappa — University of California, Davis
Jian Wang — Washington University in St. Louis
Alex B Guenther — University of California - Irvine
Kelley C. Barsanti — University of California Riverside
Jiumeng Liu — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Emma D'Ambro — University of Washington
Siegfried Schobesberger — University of Eastern Finland
Cassandra Gaston — University of Washington
Felipe Lopez-Hilfiker — University of Washington
Nina Sarnela — University of Helsinki
Perakyla Otso — University of Helsinki
Chao Yan — University of Helsinki
David Bell — Paul Scherrer Institute
Ryan Thalman — Brookhaven National Laboratory
Taylor Helgestad — University of California Davis
Ziyue Li — University of California, Davis
Matthew Wise — Concordia University
Ryan Caylor — Concordia University

Category

Secondary organic aerosol

Description

We conducted a set collaborative experiments to study processes by which common forest volatiles are converted into secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Monoterpenes (alpha-pinene, delta-3-carene) were subjected to both ozonolysis, and photochemical oxidation at low total aerosol loadings under both steady-state continuous flow conditions as well as time dependent aging. Extremely low volatility organic compounds were observed in both systems, but delta-3-carene exhibited the higher SOA yield. In addition, the role of NOx was systematically studied using alpha-pinene and both photochemical and dark conditions. A set of experiments probed the affect of various radical scavengers commonly used in monoterpene ozonolysis studies and found that each one produced a different affect upon SOA mass yields. We also studied the multiphase chemistry of isoprene-derived epoxy diols and the corresponding volatility and composition of SOA. We infer that while there is prompt SOA formation, its composition is not the commonly reported tetrol tracers initially. Over the course of a few hours the SOA does contain those common tracers, but a significant fraction of the SOA mass remains of much lower volatility than can be explained by such tracers. We suspect the formation of oligomers and organosulfates are much more prompt and important to the SOA than previously reported. These insights can be transformed into model relevant parameters such as SOA mass yield and volatility for examining the impact of human activities upon SOA formation from forest volatiles.