AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Laboratory and Field Constraints on Water Driven Multi-phase Chemistry
JOEL A. THORNTON, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Abstract Number: 169 Working Group: The Role of Water in Aerosol Chemistry
Abstract The dissolution, diffusion, and reaction in aqueous aerosol particles influences the lifetime of nitrogen and hydrogen oxide radicals as well as the abundance of secondary organic aerosol and particulate nitrate. We have conducted a suite of laboratory experiments that probe the fundamental parameters governing uptake and reaction of both inorganic and organic compounds in sub-micron particles, including liquid water content and its availability due to particle morphology and phase. Complimentary field observations of reactants and particle phase products provide constraints on the main controls as well as continuing sources of uncertainty in how best to parameterize these processes in regional and global scale models. A consistent framework can explain the rates of processing under a variety of conditions in laboratory studies. However, field observations demonstrate that ultimately, our quantitative understanding of reactive uptake of both inorganic and organic compounds is limited by an unresolved role of particulate organic matter in setting the phase, morphology and even fate of accommodated trace gases.