Characterization of Organic Aerosols throughout the Depth of an Urban Planetary Boundary Layer: proposed field deployment of EMSL mass spectrometers
EMSL Project ID
19840
Abstract
We are requesting EMSL support to deploy a PTR-MS and several aerosol mass spectrometers at the ~150, ~450 and ~850 AGL levels of a 900 ft skyscraper as part of a larger scientific program to study aerosols and air chemistry study in southeast Texas. The resulting time dependent aerosol composition and size data to come from EMSL would be combined with co-located observations to be provided by other investigators (aerosol hygroscopicity, hydrocarbons, NO, NO2, NOy, O3 and SO2) to 1) characterize the physical and radiative properties of hydrogenated and oxygenated organic carbon aerosols within a large urban area 2) relate the concentrations of primary and secondary organic compounds to the formation of secondary organic aerosols within and above a growing planetary boundary layer, 3) examine the role of aerosols on N2O5 chemistry at night and 4) validate a new remote-sensing technique to quantify aerosol extinction and the concentration of a variety of trace gases atmospheric gases. Although the proposed measurements would be used by other investigators from around the country for a wide variety of other studies related to aerosol and trace-gas chemistry, we have selected these four topics because of their relevancy to current work being done in basic aerosol sciences and also because of their relevancy to improvements in the treatment of aerosols within large scale reactive transport models being used for climate and air quality planning. In addition, the use of the EMSL instruments and associated scientific talent will provide results of interest to a wide variety of investigators and institutions, fostering expanding the involvement of EMSL into the broader atmospheric science community.
Project Details
Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2006-08-25
End Date
2009-09-30
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator
Team Members