Biomass Burning Research Using DOE ARM Single-Particle Soot Photometer (SP2) Field Campaign Report
- Aerodyne Research, Inc., Billerica, MA (United States)
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
The focus of this laboratory study was to investigate the chemical and optical properties, and the detection efficiencies, of tar balls generated in the laboratory using the same instruments deployed on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility Gulfstream-1 (G-1) aircraft during the 2013 Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP) field study, during which tar balls were observed in wildland biomass burning particulate emissions. Key goals of this laboratory study were: (a) measuring the chemical composition of tar balls to provide insights into the atmospheric processes that form (evaporation/oxidation) and modify them in biomass burning plumes, (b) identifying whether tar balls contain refractory black carbon, (c) determining the collection efficiencies of tar balls impacting on the 600oC heated tungsten vaporizer in the Aerodyne Soot Particle Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (SP-AMS) (i.e., given the observed low volatilities, AMS measurements might underestimate organic biomass burning plume loadings), and (d) measuring the wavelength-dependent, mass-specific absorption cross-sections of brown carbon components of tar balls. This project was funded primarily by the DOE Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program, and the ARM Facility made their single-particle soot photometer (SP2) available for September 1-September 31, 2016 in the Aerodyne laboratories. The ARM mentor (Dr. Sedlacek) requested no funds for mentorship or data reduction. All ARM SP2 data collected as part of this project are archived in the ARM Data Archive in accordance with established protocols. The main objectives of the ARM Biomass Burning Observation Period (BBOP, July-October, 2013) field campaign were to (1) assess the impact of wildland fires in the Pacific Northwest on climate, through near-field and regional intensive measurement campaigns, and (2) investigate agricultural burns to determine how those biomass burn plumes differ from those from wildland fires. During BBOP, tar balls, small solid particles of organic substances, were observed downwind from wildland fires (at plume ages of 0-3 hours), but not agricultural burns. Observations of the tar balls on transmission electron microscope (TEM) grids suggest that they formed during atmospheric transport, likely due to the same atmospheric processes that increased the oxidation levels of the organic aerosol. Preliminary analyses suggest that tar balls may account for almost 50% of the total particle number, and 30% of the total organic particle mass, of the aerosol emitted from the burning events. These BBOP observations are described in detail in a manuscript in preparation (Sedlacek et al., 2017). The current laboratory study lasted four weeks and was conducted in the aerosol laboratories located at Aerodyne Research, Inc. in Billerica, Massachusetts. Tar balls were generated from several different biomass fuels, including samples from BBOP-related field sites, following literature procedures (Hoffer, Tóth, Nyirö-Kósa, Pósfai, and Gelencsér, 2016; Tóth, Hoffer, Nyirö-Kósa, Pósfai, and Gelencsér, 2014), and they were characterized using the same equipment used during the 2013 BBOP study, specifically the SP-AMS, SP2 and TEM. This study determined that laboratory-generated tar balls (1) are refractory with respect to TEM analysis in a similar manner to those collected during BBOP from wildland fires, (2) are composed of organic material with some refractory carbon components, (3) can be measured quantitatively by the SP-AMS, strengthening observations during BBOP, (4) absorb visible light, and (4) are dominated by unsaturated hydrocarbons that may be responsible for their light-absorbing properties. The results from this project are already being incorporated into our analysis of the formation processes and emission rates of tar balls as a function of fuel and combustion conditions from wildland fires.
- 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:
- c.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-7601830
- OSTI ID:
- 1347112
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/SC-ARM-17-007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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