AAAR 32nd Annual Conference
September 30 - October 4, 2013
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Secondary Organic Aerosol Precursors in Biomass Burning Smoke
LINDSAY HATCH, Wentai Luo, James F. Pankow, Robert J. Yokelson, Kelley C. Barsanti, Portland State University
Abstract Number: 206 Working Group: Carbonaceous Aerosols in the Atmosphere
Abstract Biomass burning is the second largest source of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) worldwide, which may undergo photochemical processing leading to secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. As part of the fourth Fire Lab at Missoula Experiment (FLAME-4) in 2012, samples of VOC emissions from fires of 6 different globally-relevant, plant-based fuels were collected and analyzed by two-dimensional gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GCxGC/TOFMS). Hundreds of compounds were identified, many of which are known SOA precursors, including more than 15 monoterpenes, 10 sesquiterpenes, phenols, and substituted aromatics. Further, smoke from the 6 fuels displayed widely different chemical characteristics, particularly regarding the presence and abundance of biogenic and oxygenated compounds, highlighting that the pathways to SOA formation will vary considerably with fuel type. These FLAME-4 measurements will inform the development of a model describing chemical evolution and SOA formation within smoke plumes in order to improve air quality predictions downwind of fire activity.