American Association for Aerosol Research - Abstract Submission

AAAR 35th Annual Conference
October 17 - October 21, 2016
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA

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Near-source Evolution of Black Carbon Mixing States: Three-dimensional Source-oriented Model Evaluation

ALESHKA CARRION-MATTA, Bo Yang, Hitoshi Matsui, K. Max Zhang, Cornell University

     Abstract Number: 115
     Working Group: Carbonaceous Aerosols in the Atmosphere

Abstract
Black carbon particles have been linked to global warming due to their physicochemical and optical properties. Mixing states of these particles are known to influence absorption efficiency and CCN activity. Spatial evolution of black carbon particles has been studied in global and regional models, which rely on realistic parameterization of source emissions. Recent studies have shown the importance of initial size distributions and mixing states in order to estimate black carbon particles radiate effects. Sensitivity simulations showed that optical and radiative variables were highly sensitive to aerosol size and mixing state initial values. Yet, few models can successfully resolve initial aerosol size distribution, number concentration and mixing state; and better representation of these features are needed. In this study, we coupled source-oriented aerosol dynamic processes with transport of black carbon particles from its sources to ambient background, simulated using computational fluid dynamics model (CFD). This model predicts size distribution, chemical composition and mixing state of black carbon particles at meter-scale resolution spatially. Outcomes from this study can potentially lead to better parameterization of appropriate initial size distributions and mixing states in the emission profiles for global and regional models.