Long-Term Characterizations and Source Apportionment of Nonrefractory Submicron Aerosol Chemistry at DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Observatories

Event Type: Webinar (Zoom Access)

Speaker: Maria Zawadowicz, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Abstract:

Atmospheric aerosols, microscopic particles suspended in air, play an important role in the Earth System as key factors in radiative transfer, cloud formation and water cycle. Several climactically important properties of aerosols, such as index of refraction, hygroscopicity and ability to seed ice clouds, are functions of their chemical composition. Atmospheric aerosols are complex mixtures of organic and inorganic components—their composition reflects their emission source, photochemical age, and interactions with other components of the atmosphere: reactive trace gases, cloud and rain droplets and gas-phase oxidants. Comprehensive characterization of these chemically complex and dynamic mixtures can be achieved by mass spectrometry, both in situ and off-line, following collection of aerosols on filter. Aerosol and trace gas mass spectrometers produce multivariate datasets rich in information.

The topic of this seminar is an overview of data collected by the Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitors (ACSMs) deployed as a part of DOE ARM User Facility. Specifically, we will cover long-term measurements are the Southern Great Plains (SGP) site and the on-going Tracking Aerosol-Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) campaign in Houston, TX. I will discuss on-going efforts in data quality assessment and source apportionment of the ACSM and other aerosol data.