Quantification of Vanadium in Non-Refractory Marine Boundary Layer Particles: Impacts of Heavy Fuel Ships on Particulate Matter (PM) in the Remote Central Pacific

MAYA ABOU-GHANEM, Daniel Murphy, Gregory Schill, Michael Lawler, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

     Abstract Number: 327
     Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds and Climate

Abstract
The world economy is highly dependent on the shipping industry, which is responsible for approximately 90% of global trade. To date, most ships rely on the combustion of heavy fuel oils, which contain metals, including vanadium and nickel. It is well established within the atmospheric research community that vanadium can serve as a tracer for particulate matter (PM) generated by heavy fuel ship exhaust. Previous studies have suggested that PM from ships may have climate implications due to vanadium’s ability to catalyze the aqueous-phase oxidation of SO₂ to sulfate and sulfuric acid, which are important aerosol components for cloud formation.

To better understand the climate implications of vanadium in the marine atmosphere, Particle Analysis by Laser Mass Spectrometry (PALMS) was deployed on the NASA DC-8 aircraft for real-time individual aerosol particle analysis during the 2016–2018 Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom). Using preliminary PALMS data sets obtained during ATom, we observe vanadium in ~2% of accumulation mode particles measured in the remote central Pacific and find that most of these vanadium-rich particles reside in the lower troposphere. Interestingly, these measurements were taken in the absence of ship plumes, which means that PM from ships may remain in the atmosphere for extended periods of time; however, to fully understand the global distribution of PM from ship emissions, PALMS calibrations are required. Here, I present PALMS laboratory calibrations of mixed vanadium, sulfate, and organic aerosol particles, which I use as a proxy for PM from ship exhaust, to quantify vanadium-containing particles measured during ATom. This work will further our understanding of both the chemical composition and the distribution of PM from ship plumes, leading to new insights into the cloud formation properties of these particles.