scholarly journals Source identification and airborne chemical characterisation of aerosol pollution from long-range transport over Greenland during POLARCAT summer campaign 2008

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 10097-10123 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Schmale ◽  
J. Schneider ◽  
G. Ancellet ◽  
B. Quennehen ◽  
A. Stohl ◽  
...  

Abstract. We deployed an aerosol mass spectrometer during the POLARCAT (Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, Surface Measurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, and Transport) summer campaign in Greenland in June/July 2008 on the research aircraft ATR-42. Online size resolved chemical composition data of submicron aerosol were collected up to 7.6 km altitude in the region 60 to 71° N and 40 to 60° W. Biomass burning (BB) and fossil fuel combustion (FF) plumes originating from North America, Asia, Siberia and Europe were sampled. Transport pathways of detected plumes included advection below 700 hPa, air mass uplifting in warm conveyor belts, and high altitude transport in the upper troposphere. By means of the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART, trace gas analysis of O3 and CO, particle size distributions and aerosol chemical composition 48 pollution events were identified and classified into five chemically distinct categories. Aerosol from North American BB consisted of 22% particulate sulphate, while with increasing anthropogenic and Asian influence aerosol in Asian FF dominated plumes was composed of up to 37% sulphate category mean value. Overall, it was found that the organic matter fraction was larger (85%) in pollution plumes than for background conditions (71%). Despite different source regions and emission types the particle oxygen to carbon ratio of all plume classes was around 1 indicating low-volatility highly oxygenated aerosol. The volume size distribution of out-of-plume aerosol showed markedly smaller modes than all other distributions with two Aitken mode diameters of 24 and 43 nm and a geometric standard deviation σg of 1.12 and 1.22, respectively, while another very broad mode was found at 490 nm (σg = 2.35). Nearly pure BB particles from North America exhibited an Aitken mode at 66 nm (σg = 1.46) and an accumulation mode diameter of 392 nm (σg = 1.76). An aerosol lifetime, including all processes from emission to detection, in the range between 7 and 11 days was derived for North American emissions.

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 7593-7658 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Schmale ◽  
J. Schneider ◽  
G. Ancellet ◽  
B. Quennehen ◽  
A. Stohl ◽  
...  

Abstract. We deployed an aerosol mass spectrometer during the POLARCAT (Polar Study using Aircraft, Remote Sensing, Surface Measurements and Models, of Climate, Chemistry, Aerosols, and Transport) summer campaign in Greenland in June/July 2008 on the research aircraft ATR-42. Online size resolved chemical composition data of submicron aerosol were collected up to 7.6 km altitude in the region 60 to 71° N and 40 to 60° W. Biomass burning (BB) and fossil fuel combustion (FF) plumes originating from North America, Asia, Siberia and Europe were sampled. Transport pathways of detected plumes included advection below 700 hPa, air mass uplifting in warm conveyor belts, and high altitude transport in the upper troposphere. By means of the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART, trace gas analysis of O3 and CO, particle size distributions and aerosol chemical composition 48 pollution events were identified and classified into five chemically distinct categories. Aerosol from North American BB consisted of 22% particulate sulphate, while with increasing anthropogenic and Asian influence aerosol was composed of up to 37% sulphate category mean value. Overall, it was found that the organic matter fraction was larger (85%) in pollution plumes than for background conditions (71%). Despite different source regions and emission types the particle oxygen to carbon ratio of all plume classes was around 1 indicating low-volatile highly oxygenated aerosol. Also the volume size distributions were rather similar for all sampled plume categories. This can be explained by the relatively long transport times of roughly one week from North America and two weeks from Asia/Siberia. The derived aerosol lifetime for North American emissions was about 9 ± 2 days.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 6077-6112
Author(s):  
T. Anttila ◽  
V.-M. Kerminen

Abstract. Aitken mode particles are potentially an important source of cloud droplets in continental background areas. In order to find out which physico-chemical properties of Aitken mode particles are most important regarding their cloud-nucleating ability, we applied a global sensitivity method to an adiabatic air parcel model simulating the number of cloud droplets formed on Aitken mode particles, CD2. The technique propagates uncertainties in the parameters describing the properties of Aitken mode to CD2. The results show that if the Aitken mode particles do not contain molecules that are able to reduce the particle surface tension more than 30% and/or decrease the mass accommodation coefficient of water, α, below 10−2, the chemical composition and modal properties may have roughly an equal importance at low updraft velocities characterized by maximum supersaturations <0.1%. For larger updraft velocities, however, the particle size distribution is clearly more important than the chemical composition. In general, CD2 exhibits largest sensitivity to the particle number concentration, followed by the particle size. Also the shape of the particle mode, characterized by the geometric standard deviation (GSD), can be as important as the mode mean size at low updraft velocities. Finally, the performed sensitivity analysis revealed also that the chemistry may dominate the total sensitivity of CD2 to the considered parameters if: 1) the value of α varies at least one order of magnitude more than what is expected for pure water surfaces (10−2–1), or 2) the particle surface tension varies more than roughly 30% under conditions close to reaching supersaturation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 18417-18478 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. Fuelberg ◽  
D. L. Harrigan ◽  
W. Sessions

Abstract. The Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) mission was a multi-aircraft project whose major objective was to investigate the factors driving changes in the Arctic's atmospheric composition and climate. It was conducted during April and June–July 2008. The summer ARCTAS deployment was preceded by a week of flights over and around California to address state issues of air quality and climate forcing. This paper focuses on meteorological conditions during the ARCTAS Spring and Summer campaigns. We examine mission averaged large-scale flow patterns at the surface, 500 hPa, and 300 hPa and determine their departures from climatology. Results from runs of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are used to describe meteorological conditions on individual days. Our WRF configuration included a nested grid approach that provided horizontal spacing as small as 5 km. Trajectories calculated from the WRF output are used to determine transport pathways to the Arctic, including their origins and the altitudes at which they reach 70° N. We also present backward trajectories from selected legs of individual ARCTAS flights. Finally, the FLEXPART particle dispersion model, with the high resolution WRF data as input, is used to determine the paths of anthropogenic and biomass burning-derived CO. Results show that there was frequent and widespread transport to the Arctic during both phases of ARCTAS and that the three ARCTAS aircraft sampled air having a multitude of origins, following a myriad of paths, and experiencing many types of meteorological conditions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 3371-3383 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Cui ◽  
M. Sprenger ◽  
J. Staehelin ◽  
A. Siegrist ◽  
M. Kunz ◽  
...  

Abstract. The particle dispersion model FLEXPART and the trajectory model LAGRANTO are Lagrangian models which are widely used to study synoptic-scale atmospheric air flows such as stratospheric intrusions (SI) and intercontinental transport (ICT). In this study, we focus on SI and ICT events particularly from the North American planetary boundary layer for the Jungfraujoch (JFJ) measurement site, Switzerland, in 2005. Two representative cases of SI and ICT are identified based on measurements recorded at Jungfraujoch and are compared with FLEXPART and LAGRANTO simulations, respectively. Both models well capture the events, showing good temporal agreement between models and measurements. In addition, we investigate the performance of FLEXPART and LAGRANTO on representing SI and ICT events over the entire year 2005 in a statistical way. We found that the air at JFJ is influenced by SI during 19% (FLEXPART) and 18% (LAGRANTO), and by ICT from the North American planetary boundary layer during 13% (FLEXPART) and 12% (LAGRANTO) of the entire year. Through intercomparsion with measurements, our findings suggest that both FLEXPART and LAGRANTO are well capable of representing SI and ICT events if they last for more than 12 h, whereas both have problems on representing short events. For comparison with in-situ observations we used O3 and relative humidity for SI events. As parameters to trace ICT events we used a combination of NOy/CO and CO, however these parameters are not specific enough to distinguish aged air masses by their source regions. Moreover, a sensitivity study indicates that the agreement between models and measurements depends significantly on the threshold values applied to the individual control parameters. Generally, the less strict the thresholds are, the better the agreement between models and measurements. Although the dependence of the agreement on the threshold values is appreciable, it nevertheless confirms the conclusion that both FLEXPART and LAGRANTO are well able to capture SI and ICT events with duration longer than 12 h.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rona L. Thompson ◽  
Motoki Sasakawa ◽  
Toshinobu Machida ◽  
Tuula Aalto ◽  
Doug Worthy ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present methane (CH4) flux estimates for 2005 to 2013 from a Bayesian inversion focusing on the high northern latitudes (north of 50° N). Our inversion is based on atmospheric transport modelled by the Lagrangian particle dispersion model, FLEXPART, and CH4 observations from 17 in-situ and 5 discrete flask-sampling sites distributed over northern North America and Eurasia. CH4 fluxes are determined at monthly temporal resolution and on a variable grid with maximum resolution of 1° × 1°. Our inversion finds a CH4 source from the high northern latitudes of 82 to 84 Tg y−1, constituting ~15 % of the global total, compared to 64 to 68 Tg y−1 (~12 %) in the prior estimates. For northern North America, we estimate a mean source of 16.6 to 17.9 Tg y−1, which is dominated by fluxes in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) and western Canada, specifically, the province of Alberta. Our estimate for the HBL, of 2.7 to 3.4 Tg y−1, is close to the prior estimate (which includes wetland fluxes from the land surface model, LPX-Bern) and to other independent inversion estimates. However, our estimate for Alberta, of 5.0 to 5.8 Tg y−1 is significantly higher than the prior (which also includes anthropogenic sources from the EDGAR-4.2FT2010 inventory). Since the fluxes from this region persist throughout the winter, this may signify that the anthropogenic emissions are underestimated. For North Eurasia, we find a mean source of 52.2 to 55.5 Tg y−1, with a strong contribution from fluxes in the Western Siberian Lowlands (WSL) for which we estimate a source of 19.3 to 19.9 Tg y−1. Over the 9-year inversion period, we find significant year-to-year variations in the fluxes, which in North America and, specifically, in the HBL appear to be driven at least in part by soil temperature, while in the WSL, the variability is more dependent on soil moisture. Moreover, we find significant positive trends in the CH4 fluxes in North America of 0.38 to 0.57 Tg y−1 per year, and North Eurasia of 0.76 to 1.09 Tg y−1 per year. In North America, this could be due to an increase in soil temperature, while in North Eurasia, specifically, Russia, the trend is likely due, at least in part, to an increase in anthropogenic sources.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 15141-15190
Author(s):  
B. Zhang ◽  
R. C. Owen ◽  
J. A. Perlinger ◽  
A. Kumar ◽  
S. Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Pico Mountain Observatory, located at 2225 m a.s.l. in the Azores Islands, was established in 2001 to observe long-range transport from North America to the central North Atlantic. In previous research conducted at the Observatory, ozone enhancement (>55 ppbv) in North American outflows was observed, and efficient ozone production in these outflows was postulated. This study is focused on determining the causes for high d[O3]/d[CO] values (~1 ppbv ppbv−1) observed in summers of 2009 and 2010. The folded retroplume technique, developed by Owen and Honrath (2009), was applied to combine upwind FLEXPART transport pathways with GEOS-Chem chemical fields. This folded result provides a semi-Lagrangian view of polluted North American outflow in terms of physical properties and chemical processes, including production/loss rate of ozone and NOx produced by lightning and thermal decomposition of PAN. Two transport events from North America were identified for detailed analysis. High d[O3]/d[CO] was observed in both events, but due to differing transport mechanisms, ozone production tendency differed between the two. A layer of net ozone production was found at 2 km a.s.l. over the Azores in the first event plume, apparently driven by PAN decomposition during subsidence of air mass in the Azores-Bermuda High. In the second event, net ozone loss occurred during transport in the lower free troposphere, yet observed d[O3]/d[CO] was high. We estimate that in both events, CO loss through oxidation contributed significantly to d[O3]/d[CO] enhancement. Thus, CO is not appropriately used as a passive tracer of pollution in these events. In general, use of d[O3]/d[CO] as an indicator of net ozone production/loss may be invalid for any situation in which oxidants are elevated. Based on our analysis, use of d[O3]/d[CO] to diagnose ozone enhancement without verifying the assumption of negligible CO loss is not advisable.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 2267-2287 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Zhang ◽  
R. C. Owen ◽  
J. A. Perlinger ◽  
A. Kumar ◽  
S. Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Pico Mountain Observatory, located at 2225 m a.s.l. in the Azores Islands, was established in 2001 to observe long-range transport from North America to the central North Atlantic. In previous research conducted at the observatory, ozone enhancement (> 55 ppbv) in North American outflows was observed, and efficient ozone production in these outflows was postulated. This study is focused on determining the causes for high d[O3] / d[CO] values (~1 ppbv ppbv−1) observed in the summers of 2009 and 2010. The folded retroplume technique, developed by Owen and Honrath (2009), was applied to combine upwind FLEXPART transport pathways with GEOS-Chem chemical fields. The folded result provides a semi-Lagrangian view of polluted North American outflow in terms of physical properties and chemical processes, including production/loss rate of ozone and NOx produced by lightning and thermal decomposition of peroxy acetyl nitrate (PAN). Two transport events from North America were identified for detailed analysis. High d[O3] / d[CO] was observed in both events, but due to differing transport mechanisms, ozone production tendency differed between the two. A layer of net ozone production was found at 2 km a.s.l. over the Azores in the first event plume, apparently driven by PAN decomposition during subsidence of air mass in the Azores–Bermuda High. In the second event, net ozone loss occurred during transport in the lower free troposphere, yet observed d[O3] / d[CO] was high. We estimate that in both events, CO loss through oxidation contributed significantly to d[O3] / d[CO] enhancement. Thus, it is not appropriate to use CO as a passive tracer of pollution in these events. In general, use of d[O3] / d[CO] as an indicator of net ozone production/loss may be invalid for any situation in which oxidants are elevated. Based on our analysis, use of d[O3] / d[CO] to diagnose ozone enhancement without verifying the assumption of negligible CO loss is not advisable.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 817-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. E. Fuelberg ◽  
D. L. Harrigan ◽  
W. Sessions

Abstract. The Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) mission was a multi-aircraft project whose major objective was to investigate the factors driving changes in the Arctic's atmospheric composition and climate. It was conducted during April and June–July 2008. The summer ARCTAS deployment was preceded by a week of flights over and around California to address state issues of air quality and climate forcing. This paper focuses on meteorological conditions during the ARCTAS Spring and Summer campaigns. We examine mission averaged large-scale flow patterns at the surface, 500 hPa, and 300 hPa and determine their departures from climatology. Results from runs of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model are used to describe meteorological conditions on individual days. Our WRF configuration included a nested grid approach that provided horizontal spacing as small as 5 km. Trajectories calculated from the WRF output are used to determine transport pathways to the Arctic, including their origins and the altitudes at which they reach 70° N. We also present backward trajectories from selected legs of individual ARCTAS flights. Finally, the FLEXPART Lagrangian particle dispersion model, with the high resolution WRF data as input, is used to determine the paths of anthropogenic and biomass burning-derived CO. Results show that there was frequent and widespread transport to the Arctic during both phases of ARCTAS and that the three ARCTAS aircraft sampled air having a multitude of origins, following a myriad of paths, and experiencing many types of meteorological conditions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1447-1487
Author(s):  
J. Cui ◽  
M. Sprenger ◽  
J. Staehelin ◽  
A. Siegrist ◽  
M. Kunz ◽  
...  

Abstract. The particle dispersion model FLEXPART and the trajectory model LAGRANTO are Lagrangian models which are widely used to study synoptic-scale atmospheric air flows such as stratospheric intrusions (SI) and intercontinental transport (ICT). In this study, we focus on SI and ICT events particularly from the North American planetary boundary layer for the Jungfraujoch (JFJ) measurement site, Switzerland, in 2005. Two representative cases of SI and ICT are identified based on measurements recorded at Jungfraujoch and are compared with FLEXPART and LAGRANTO simulations, respectively. Both models well capture the events, showing good temporal agreement between models and measurements. In addition, we investigate the performance of FLEXPART and LAGRANTO on representing SI and ICT events over the entire year 2005 in a statistical way. We found that the air at JFJ is influenced by SI during 19% (FLEXPART) and 18% (LAGRANTO), and by ICT from the North American planetary boundary layer during 13% (FLEXPART) and 12% (LAGRANTO) of the entire year. Through intercomparsion with measurements, our findings suggest that both FLEXPART and LAGRANTO are well capable of representing SI and ICT events if they last for more than 12 h, whereas both have problems on representing short events. It is also shown that although the long-range transported air is characterized by relatively low NOy/CO ratios and elevated CO concentrations, using a combination of NOy/CO and CO as control parameters still encounters difficulty in distinguishing aged air masses by their source regions. Moreover, a sensitivity study indicates that the agreement between models and measurements depends significantly on the threshold values applied to the individual control parameters. Generally, the less strict the thresholds are, the better the agreement between models and measurements. Although the dependence of the agreement on the threshold values is appreciable, it nevertheless confirms the conclusion that both FLEXPART and LAGRANTO are well able to capture SI and ICT events with sustaining time longer than 12 h.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 3553-3572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rona L. Thompson ◽  
Motoki Sasakawa ◽  
Toshinobu Machida ◽  
Tuula Aalto ◽  
Doug Worthy ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present methane (CH4) flux estimates for 2005 to 2013 from a Bayesian inversion focusing on the high northern latitudes (north of 50° N). Our inversion is based on atmospheric transport modelled by the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART and CH4 observations from 17 in situ and five discrete flask-sampling sites distributed over northern North America and Eurasia. CH4 fluxes are determined at monthly temporal resolution and on a variable grid with maximum resolution of 1°  ×  1°. Our inversion finds a CH4 source from the high northern latitudes of 82 to 84 Tg yr−1, constituting ∼ 15 % of the global total, compared to 64 to 68 Tg yr−1 (∼ 12 %) in the prior estimates. For northern North America, we estimate a mean source of 16.6 to 17.9 Tg yr−1, which is dominated by fluxes in the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) and western Canada, specifically the province of Alberta. Our estimate for the HBL, of 2.7 to 3.4 Tg yr−1, is close to the prior estimate (which includes wetland fluxes from the land surface model, LPX-Bern) and to other independent inversion estimates. However, our estimate for Alberta, of 5.0 to 5.8 Tg yr−1, is significantly higher than the prior (which also includes anthropogenic sources from the EDGAR-4.2FT2010 inventory). Since the fluxes from this region persist throughout the winter, this may signify that the anthropogenic emissions are underestimated. For northern Eurasia, we find a mean source of 52.2 to 55.5 Tg yr−1, with a strong contribution from fluxes in the Western Siberian Lowlands (WSL) for which we estimate a source of 19.3 to 19.9 Tg yr−1. Over the 9-year inversion period, we find significant year-to-year variations in the fluxes, which in North America, and specifically in the HBL, appear to be driven at least in part by soil temperature, while in the WSL, the variability is more dependent on soil moisture. Moreover, we find significant positive trends in the CH4 fluxes in North America of 0.38 to 0.57 Tg yr−2, and northern Eurasia of 0.76 to 1.09 Tg yr−2. In North America, this could be due to an increase in soil temperature, while in North Eurasia, specifically Russia, the trend is likely due, at least in part, to an increase in anthropogenic sources.


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