10th International Aerosol Conference September 2 - September 7, 2018 America's Center Convention Complex St. Louis, Missouri, USA
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Online Bioaerosol and Dust Measurements during the Aqaba Research Cruise around the Arabian Peninsula
TOBIAS KÖNEMANN, Nicole Savage, Charlotte Beall, Emilio Rodriguez-Caballero, Florian Ditas, Marcel Dorf, Hartwig Harder, Jos Lelieveld, David Walter, Bettina Weber, Petya Yordanova, Meinrat O. Andreae, J. Alex Huffman, Ulrich Pöschl, Christopher Pöhlker, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Abstract Number: 809 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract The Middle East represents a hot and arid region, characterized by diverse environmental conditions ranging from near-pristine and unpolluted but dusty, to strongly polluted due to areas with high population density. A study across the region, therefore, provides a broad range of atmospheric compositions derived from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Only few comprehensive sets of atmospheric measurements have ever been performed in this region, however.
The AQABA (Air Quality and Climate Change in the Arabian BAsin) campaign, which represents one of the most comprehensive ship-borne measurement campaigns, took place from June 18th to September 3rd 2017. The majority of sampling took place from the deck of the KOMMANDOR IONA research ship, which sailed from France, across the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, to Kuwait, and then back around the Arabian Peninsula to a final dock of La Seyne-sur-Mer (southern France). During the campaign, an extensive set of different measurement techniques has been applied to investigate aerosol interactions and photochemical processes. To address biological and non-biological aerosol load and composition, we performed measurements with different analytical detection techniques (e.g. Ultrafine CPC (Condensation Particle Counter) for aerosol number concentration; Wideband Integrated Bioaerosol Sensor (WIBS-4A) for fluorescent bioaerosol properties).
In addition to the instruments mentioned above, we used a novel online laser/light-induced-fluorescence instrument for real-time analysis of individual bioparticles, providing information on particle size, asymmetry, and resolved fluorescence information. The Spectral Intensity Bioaerosol Sensor (SIBS, Droplet Measurement Technologies, Longmont, CO, USA) uses two excitation wavelengths at 285 and 370 nm and resolves fluorescence emission into 16 bins, ranging from 302 to 721 nm. Particles are measured over a broad size range between ~ 0.5 and > 50 µm.
We will report first results from this pioneering field campaign and focus on the composition and properties of both biological and non-biological coarse particles over a wide variety of environmental conditions in the Middle East Region. Measurement periods included scenarios such as clean marine air, petrochemical pollution, megacity-influenced air masses, and dust from North Africa. Preliminary data indicate that the SIBS was capable of detecting scenario-specific spectral “fingerprints”, providing a certain level of particle discrimination for upcoming cluster analyses. We will show how aerosol auto-fluorescence properties can be used for online classification of bioaerosol particles.