Complexity in the Evolution, Composition, and Spectroscopy of Brown Carbon in Aircraft Measurements of Wildfire Plumes

Biomass burning is a major source of light‐absorbing organic aerosol (brown carbon), but its composition, chemical evolution, and lifetime are not well known. We measured water‐soluble brown carbon absorption from 310 to 500 nm on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Twin Otter aircra...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical research letters 2022-05, Vol.49 (9), p.n/a
Main Authors: Washenfelder, R. A., Azzarello, L., Ball, K., Brown, S. S., Decker, Z. C. J., Franchin, A., Fredrickson, C. D., Hayden, K., Holmes, C. D., Middlebrook, A. M., Palm, B. B., Pierce, R. B., Price, D. J., Roberts, J. M., Robinson, M. A., Thornton, J. A., Womack, C. C., Young, C. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption
Absorption coefficient
Absorption spectra
Absorptivity
Aerosol absorption
Aerosol composition
Aerosols
Air sampling
Aircraft
Analytical methods
Biomass burning
brown carbon
Burning
Carbon
Carbon aerosols
Chemical composition
Chemical evolution
Chromophores
Electromagnetic absorption
Evolution
Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality
Fire plumes
FIREX‐AQ
Light absorption
Plumes
Smoke plumes
Spectra
Spectroscopy
Spectrum analysis
Time measurement
Tracers
wildfire smoke
Wildfires
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Summary:Biomass burning is a major source of light‐absorbing organic aerosol (brown carbon), but its composition, chemical evolution, and lifetime are not well known. We measured water‐soluble brown carbon absorption from 310 to 500 nm on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Twin Otter aircraft during flights downwind of western United States wildfires in summer 2019. The sampling strategy was near‐Lagrangian and the plume ages spanned 0–5 hr. Trends in brown carbon mass absorption coefficient with plume age varied between flights, and did not show an exponential decay over these short time scales. The measured absorption spectra were smoothly varying, without identifiable contributions from individual chromophores with structured absorption. Using aerosol tracer ions and reference absorption spectra, the calculated contribution of 4‐nitrocatechol to total absorption was
ISSN:0094-8276
1944-8007
DOI:10.1029/2022GL098951