Abstract View
Influence of Small-scale Agricultural Activity on Local Particle- and Gas-phase Organic Composition
GRAHAM FRAZIER, Chenyang Bi, Namrata Shanmukh Panji, Gabriel Isaacman-VanWertz, Virginia Tech
Abstract Number: 317
Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosol
Abstract
Localized human activity can have a wide range of atmospheric impacts, from direct emissions of gas- and particle-phase reactive carbon, to influencing the chemical transformations of dominant biogenic emissions. The Covid-19 pandemic-related lockdown lowers community emission and enables us to better examine localized anthropogenic emissions. We present data from a new month-long field deployment to characterize changing biogenic and anthropogenic emissions during the aforementioned time period. The composition of organic aerosol and aerosol-forming organic gases were measured by a semi-volatile thermal desorption aerosol gas chromatography (SV-TAG) at a small farm at the western edge of the Richmond, VA, metropolitan area, representative of rural suburb interface in the southeastern US. Particle and semi-volatile gases were collected and analyzed by gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry with hourly time resolution for a one-month period in the late spring during the pandemic-driven stay-at-home orders. This work focuses on understanding the influence of local agricultural activity on particle chemistry, direct particle emissions, and changes to emissions from vegetation. We present concentrations of oxidation products and their precursors and discuss them in the context of meteorological conditions and changing human activity.