AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
Chemical Speciation of Biomass Burning Aerosol Collected above and below the Forest Canopy with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle during Prescribed Fires
AUDREY DANG, Michael Walker, Claire Fortenberry, Christopher Oxford, Benjamin Sumlin, Jiayu Li, Jonathan Myers, Brent Williams, Washington University in St. Louis
Abstract Number: 392 Working Group: Instrumentation and Methods
Abstract Biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA) contributes a significant fraction of global organic aerosol, which can impact health, visibility, and radiative forcing. While previous field and laboratory studies have advanced understanding of BBOA chemical composition, the analysis of molecular tracers is complicated by photochemical aging and dilution, which drive chemical transformation and phase partitioning.
We present results from experiments aimed at characterizing BBOA chemical composition at the ground and forest canopy levels during an active forest fire. In these experiments, BBOA was collected on quartz filters above the canopy with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as well as at ground level during prescribed burns of six 2.5-hectare deciduous forest plots at Tyson Research Center in Missouri.
The samples collected on quartz filters were thermally desorbed with helium at 300°C and analyzed with gas chromatography mass spectroscopy using a recently developed Filter Thermal Desorption Aerosol Gas Chromatograph (Filter TAG). Ground and canopy measurements are compared to examine changes in speciation with plume aging and dilution. Resolved compounds are compared with BBOA tracer molecules identified in previous chamber studies.