A219-0010
Measurement of Aerosol Chromophores Contributing to Brown Carbon during FIREX-AQ

Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Poster
Linghan Zeng, Georgia Institute of Technology Main Campus, Atlanta, GA, United States, Eric M Scheuer, University of New Hampshire, Institute for the Study of Earth, Ocean, and Space, Durham, NH, United States, Jack E Dibb, University of New Hampshire, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space, Durham, NH, United States, Joseph M Katich, University of Colorado Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL), Boulder, CO, United States, Joshua Peter Schwarz, NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (CSL), Boulder, CO, United States, Nicholas L. Wagner, NOAA ESRL/University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, Glenn S Diskin, NASA Langley Research Ctr, Hampton, VA, United States and Rodney J Weber, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Atlanta, GA, United States
Abstract:
Organic aerosols (OA) mostly scatter solar radiation cooling the planet. However, a portion of organic species, brown carbon (BrC), absorbs light at shorter visible and near-ultraviolet wavelengths. BrC has been found to have an appreciable impact on visibility, climate, air quality, human health, and photochemistry on local, regional, and global scale. BrC is known to be mainly produced in biomass burning, and its optical properties change with secondary reactions following the emission. Here, we present the result from observation of BrC in the 2019 summer during FIREX-AQ, focusing on wildfires burning in western United States. Based on measurements of chromophores in filter extracts using water and methanol solvents, we investigate the variability in plume evolution for water and methanol-soluble BrC in plumes up to roughly 10 hours in age. These results are contrasted to more highly aged plumes measured in other studies.
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