In situ measurements of heterogeneous reactions on ambient aerosol particles: Impacts on atmospheric chemistry and climate
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Aerosol particles play a critical role in the Earth’s energy budget through the absorption and scattering of radiation, and/or through their ability to form clouds and alter cloud lifetime. Heterogeneous and multi-phase reactions alter the climate-relevant properties of aerosol particles and catalyze reaction pathways that are energetically unfavorable in the gas phase. The chemical composition of aerosol particles dictates the kinetics of heterogeneous and multi-phase reactions. At present, the vast majority of the molecular level information on these processes has been determined in laboratory investigations on model aerosol systems. The work described here provides a comprehensive investigation into the reactivity of complex, ambient aerosol particles is proposed to determine: 1) how representative laboratory investigations of heterogeneous and multi-phase processes conducted on model, simple systems are of the real atmosphere, and 2) the impact of heterogeneous and multi-phase processes on ambient particle optical properties and their ability to nucleate clouds. This work has focused on the uptake kinetics for ammonia (NH3) and dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5). The results of these investigations will be used to directly improve the representation of heterogeneous and multi-phase processes in global climate models, by identifying the key mechanistic drivers that control the variability in the observed kinetics.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0006431
- OSTI ID:
- 1169703
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-UCSD-6431
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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