AAAR 35th Annual Conference October 17 - October 21, 2016 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Lifetime Evaluation of Biomass Burning Markers in Low Temperature Conditions
VIKRAM PRATAP, Shunsuke Nakao, Clarkson University
Abstract Number: 426 Working Group: Aerosol Chemistry
Abstract Specificity and stability of markers are essential in source apportionment studies. Although organic markers can provide rich information on specific sources, recent studies suggest significant reactivity of biomass burning markers, such as levoglucosan, under typical summertime conditions in the context of wildfires. We note, however, that no experimental study has focused on wood smoke marker stability in wintertime conditions that is most relevant in assessing the contribution of wood stove to regional air pollution. This study will perform chamber experiments to quantify lifetime of primary and secondary wood smoke markers in a wide temperature range, including winter conditions. An 8 m3 Teflon outdoor chamber will be used to study photochemistry of markers in real wood smoke. The diluted smoke in the chamber will be analyzed for time evolution of markers and gaseous species. Finally, we will assess the applicability of various wood smoke markers for source apportionment studies by comparing experimental results and models. A preliminary model calculation shows that the lifetime of levoglucosan increases to nearly two weeks as the temperature goes below 0°C, suggesting that levoglucosan may be considered reasonably stable in wintertime source apportionment studies.