Observational constraints on black carbon wet and dry deposition

 

Authors

Delphine Farmer — Colorado State University
Gavin McMeeking — Handix Scientific
Ethan Emerson — Colorado State University

Category

General topics – Aerosols

Description

Removal of aerosols from the atmosphere occurs via wet and dry deposition. Black carbon (BC) is one form of aerosol that impacts atmospheric temperature, cloud formation and properties, the albedo of snow and ice surfaces, and the timing of snowmelt. Parameterization of BC dry deposition is particularly limited due to the lack of available instrumentation for measurement of the process, and thus the lack of observational data sets with which to evaluate existing models. The measurement of wet and dry deposition of BC may also provide insight into aerosol deposition in general, measurements of which can be challenging to interpret. We are using a Single-Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) instrument with eddy covariance flux measurement of size-resolved rBC (core size and mixing size) through field measurements at the DOE ARM Southern Great Plains site in the summer of 2017. In this poster, we present our initial instrumental modifications and demonstrate our ability to make fast, sensitive, size-resolved black carbon measurements, meeting the requirements for eddy covariance flux measurements.