Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon 2014/15: Hydroxyl Radical (OH) Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS) Field Campaign Report
- Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
The University of California, Irvine, science team (Dr. Saewung Kim, Dr. Roger Seco, Dr. Alex Guenther, and Dr. Jim Smith) deployed a chemical ionization mass spectrometer system for hydroxyl radical (OH) and sulfuric acid quantifications. As part of the GoAmazon 2014/15 field campaign. Hydroxyl radical determines tropospheric oxidation capacity and had been expected to be very low in the pristine rain forest region such as the Brazilian Amazon because of the presence of significant levels of highly reactive biogenic volatile organic compounds and very low levels of NO, which is an OH recycling agent. However, several recent in situ OH observations provided by a laser-induced fluorescence system reported unaccountably high OH concentrations. To address this discrepancy, a series of laboratory and theoretical studies has postulated chemical reaction mechanisms of isoprene that may regenerate OH in photo-oxidation processes. Along with these efforts, potential artifacts on the laser induced fluorescence system from isoprene and its oxidation products also have been explored. Therefore, the first chemical ionization mass spectrometer observations at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility’s T3 site in Manacapuru, Brazil, are expected to provide a critical experimental constraint to address uncertainty in constraining oxidation capacity over pristine rain forest environments. In addition, we deployed a National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer to characterize atmospheric volatile organic compound levels, especially isoprene and its oxidation products, which are critical input parameters for box modeling to simulate OH with different isoprene photo-oxidation schemes. As there has been no report on noticeable new particle formation events, our first in situ sulfuric acid observations in the Amazon rain forest were expected to constrain the reasons behind such observations. The planned field observations during Intensive Observational Periods I and II, post-field campaign calibrations, and preliminary data reports have been completed. We presented preliminary data analysis results at the 2014 American Geophysical Union Fall meeting and the GOAmazon Science Meeting in Boston (May 2015). We are in the process of submitting two more abstracts to the 2015 American Geophysical Union fall meeting while we are preparing two manuscripts to be submitted to (tentatively) the GOAmazon special issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
- Research Organization:
- DOE Office of Science Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- Contributing Organization:
- Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States); Central Office of the Large Scale Biosphere Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia; Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Brasilia (Brazil); National Inst. of Amazonian Research (INPA), Manaus (Brazil); National Inst. for Space Research (INPE), Sao Jose dos Campos (Brazil)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-7601830
- OSTI ID:
- 1254649
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/SC-ARM-15-061
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Observations and Modeling of the Green Ocean Amazon 2014/15: Parsivel2 Field Campaign Report
The 3-D Tropical Convective Cloud Spectrum in AMIE Radar Observations and Global Climate Simulations