Characterization of Submicron Aerosol Composition and Hygroscopicity in Houston, TX during TRacking Aerosol Convection Interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) Campaign

MARIA ZAWADOWICZ, Chongai Kuang, Ashish Singh, Janek Uin, Tamanna Subba, Dié Wang, Rebecca Trojanowski, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Olga Mayol-Bracero, Michael Jensen, Brookhaven National Laboratory

     Abstract Number: 380
     Working Group: Aerosols, Clouds and Climate

Abstract
The TRacking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) campaign took place in the Houston, TX region from October 2021 through September 2022, with the objective of providing new measurements for the study of interactions between aerosols and deep convective clouds. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Mobile Facility, deployed in the often heavily polluted location of La Porte, TX, provided a comprehensive suite of surface-based in situ and remote sensing measurements of cloud and aerosol properties, precipitation, meteorology and solar radiation. This presentation will focus on describing the seasonal characteristics of boundary layer aerosol sampled during the TRACER campaign, especially its non-refractory composition, size distributions and hygroscopicity. We compare several ways of carrying out aerosol source apportionment to disentangle different airmass characteristics and events of interest in the coastal urban atmosphere. We find that the hygroscopicity of the boundary layer aerosol sampled at TRACER is modulated by airmass origin: aerosols originating or transported over the Gulf of Mexico are more hygroscopic than the organic-dominated urban pollution.