American Association for Aerosol Research - Abstract Submission

AAAR 37th Annual Conference
October 14 - October 18, 2019
Oregon Convention Center
Portland, Oregon, USA

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Characterization of Biomass Burning Aerosols Produced in the Laboratory with a Light-Scattering Aerosol Mass Spectrometer and Ultraviolet/Visible Absorption Spectroscopy of Water-Soluble Organic Carbon

ANN M. MIDDLEBROOK, Rebecca Washenfelder, Alessandro Franchin, Gabriela Adler, Matthew Coggon, Kara D. Lamb, Katherine M. Manfred, Joshua P. Schwarz, Vanessa Selimovic, Nick Wagner, Caroline Womack, Robert J. Yokelson, NOAA ESRL

     Abstract Number: 717
     Working Group: Biomass Combustion: Emissions, Chemistry, Air Quality, Climate, and Human Health

Abstract
During the 2016 NOAA FIREX project at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory, fires of known fuel type and properties were ignited to characterize their direct emissions with a large variety of new sampling methods. During these experiments, we measured the non-refractory components of the smoke particles using an Aerodyne compact time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS) with a light scattering module. One type of experiment involved sampling when the exhaust vent was closed to fill the room with smoke for several hours (so-called “room burns”), that allowed us to perform several kinds of studies related to the volatility, photochemical aging, and further characterization of the aerosols. The unique measurements obtained with the light-scattering module provide some insight on how the total mass of biomass burning organic aerosol is detected with an AMS. In addition, we investigated potential relationships between the non-refractory, submicron AMS chemical composition and the wavelength-dependent absorption of aerosol water-soluble organic carbon for various experimental conditions. These findings will be compared with preliminary results from the 2019 FIREX-AQ field study aboard the NOAA Twin Otter aircraft.