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Heterogeneous Ice Nucleation from Biomass Burning Particles: The Effect of Chemical
Composition and Chemical Aging


EMSL Project ID
30443

Abstract

Organic material is ubiquitous in atmospheric particles. This proposal focuses on potential ice nucleation (IN) activity of biomass burning aerosol (BBA). Biomass burning is a major source of gases and particles to the atmosphere with its emission rate comparable to emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Recent findings have demonstrated that biomass burning plumes can affect the atmosphere on a regional to global scale and also penetrate the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere where temperatures promote the formation of ice8. BBA particles represent very complex organic mixtures. We will investigate how the chemical composition of these particles affects heterogeneous ice nucleation. While in the atmosphere the particles are exposed to atmospheric trace gases such as ozone. O3 can lead to the oxidation of organic species in aerosol particles by heterogeneous reactions. This process is also termed chemical aging. The effect of chemical aging on particle surface composition and subsequent consequences on ice nucleation will be investigated in the laboratory.

Project Details

Project type
Large-Scale EMSL Research
Start Date
2008-10-01
End Date
2011-09-30
Status
Closed

Team

Principal Investigator

Daniel Knopf
Institution
State University of New York at Stony Brook

Team Members

Bingbing Wang
Institution
Xiamen University

Chongmin Wang
Institution
Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory

Paul Gassman
Institution
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Alexander Laskin
Institution
Purdue University

Related Publications

Knopf DA, BB Wang, A Laskin, RC Moffet, and MK Gilles.  2010.  "Heterogeneous Nucleation of Ice on Anthropogenic Organic Particles Collected in Mexico City."  Geophysical Research Letters 37(11):Article No. L11803.  doi:10.1029/2010GL043362