Abstract View
Chemical Composition and Morphological Analysis of Internally Mixed Mineral Dust and Biomass Burning Aerosols
JAY TOMLIN, Johannes Weis, Swarup China, Daniel Veghte, Matthew Fraund, Naama Reicher, Quanfu He, Chunlin Li, Yinon Rudich, Ryan Moffet, Mary Gilles, Alexander Laskin, Purdue University
Abstract Number: 445
Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosol
Abstract
In this work, quantitative measurements of particle mixing states were determined in atmospheric particles samples collected in Israel during the 2018 Lag Ba’Omer national bonfire festival. Local bonfires spawning across the country yielded significant amount of biomass burning aerosol emitted alongside airborne mineral dust transported from nearby desert areas. This episode provided unique environmental conditions to allow for the interactions between these two aerosol types. Interactions of mineral dust with biomass burning emissions adds to the complexity of a particles mixing state. We used Computer Controlled Scanning Electron Microscope coupled with elemental microanalysis (Z>Na) to evaluate particle-type population over statistically significant number of particles and Scanning Transmission X-ray Microscopy to examine the internal composition of individual particles. This allowed us to provide quantitative description of the particles’ mixing states. Our findings reveal extensive coating of particle dust components and biomass burning particles with secondary organic material, which affects the aerosol optical properties and present quantitative metrics for practical speciation of aerosol in models.