Aging of biomass burning aerosols
Authors
Neil Donahue — Carnegie Mellon University
Adam Thomas Ahern — Aerodyne Research, Inc.
Ryan Christopher Sullivan — Carnegie Mellon University
Category
Aerosol Properties
Description
During the Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment 4 (FLAME 4) campaign in fall 2012 we systematically explored conditions associated with the aging of biomass burning smoke. Smoke samples from several different fuel burns were injected into two identical smog chambers with substantial dilution to roughly ambient aerosol concentrations. One chamber was held as a control, while the other was subject to an aging-related perturbation. Often the control was chemistry-free, while the perturbation was exposure to an oxidant (OH, ozone, etc). In some cases the control versus perturbation was low versus high NOx with oxidation in each case, or darkness versus UV illumination. Broadly, introduction of ozone reliably showed a significant capacity for generation of additional aerosol, while introduction of OH radicals reliably oxidized the aerosol with variable effects on the total aerosol mass.
