<p>The impact of brown carbon aerosol (BrC) on the Earth&#8217;s radiative forcing balance has been widely recognized but remains uncertain, mainly because the relationships among BrC sources, chromophores, and optical properties of aerosol are poorly understood (Feng et al., 2013; Laskin et al., 2015). In this work, the light absorption properties and chromophore composition of BrC were investigated for samples collected in Xi&#8217;an, Northwest China from 2015 to 2016. Both absorption &#197;ngstro&#776;m exponent and mass absorption efficiency show distinct seasonal differences, which could be attributed to the differences in sources and chromophore composition of BrC. Three groups of light-absorbing organics were found to be important BrC chromophores, including those show multiple absorption peaks at wavelength > 350 nm (12 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives) and those show single absorption peak at wavelength < 350 nm (10 nitrophenols and nitrosalicylic acids and 3 methoxyphenols). These measured BrC chromophores show distinct seasonal differences and contribute on average about 1.1% and 3.3% of light absorption of methanol-soluble BrC at 365 nm in summer and winter, respectively, about 7 and 5 times higher than the corresponding mass fractions in total organic carbon. The sources of BrC were resolved by positive matrix factorization (PMF) using these chromophores instead of commonly used non-light absorbing organic markers as model inputs. Our results show that in spring vehicular emissions and secondary formation are major sources of BrC (~70%), in fall coal combustion and vehicular emissions are major sources (~70%), in winter biomass burning and coal combustion become major sources (~80%), while in summer secondary BrC dominates (~60%).</p><p>&#160;</p><p>References:</p><p>Feng, Y., V. Ramanathan, and V. R. Kotamarthi: Brown carbon: A significant atmospheric absorber of solar radiation?, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 8607-8621, doi:10.5194/acp-13-8607-2013, 2013.</p><p>Laskin, A., J. Laskin, and S. A. Nizkorodov: Chemistry of atmospheric brown carbon, Chem. Rev., 115, 4335-4382, doi:10.1021/cr5006167, 2015.</p>
A dominant contribution to light absorption by methanol-insoluble brown carbon produced in the combustion of biomass fuels typically consumed in wildland fires in the United States
