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Title: High upward fluxes of formic acid from a boreal forest canopy

Journal Article · · Geophysical Research Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL069599· OSTI ID:1392635
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [6]; ORCiD logo [7];  [2];  [6];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences; Univ. of Helsinki (Finland). Dept. of Physics
  2. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Dept. of Atmospheric Sciences
  3. Estonian Univ. of Life Sciences, Tartu (Estonia). Dept. of Plant Physiology; Univ. of Helsinki (Finland). Dept. of Forest Sciences
  4. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States). Dept. of Soil, Water, and Climate
  5. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  6. Univ. of Helsinki (Finland). Dept. of Physics
  7. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States). Atmospheric Chemistry and Dynamics Lab.; Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore, MD (United States). Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology

Abstract Eddy covariance fluxes of formic acid, HCOOH, were measured over a boreal forest canopy in spring/summer 2014. The HCOOH fluxes were bidirectional but mostly upward during daytime, in contrast to studies elsewhere that reported mostly downward fluxes. Downward flux episodes were explained well by modeled dry deposition rates. The sum of net observed flux and modeled dry deposition yields an upward “gross flux” of HCOOH, which could not be quantitatively explained by literature estimates of direct vegetative/soil emissions nor by efficient chemical production from other volatile organic compounds, suggesting missing or greatly underestimated HCOOH sources in the boreal ecosystem. We implemented a vegetative HCOOH source into the GEOS‐Chem chemical transport model to match our derived gross flux and evaluated the updated model against airborne and spaceborne observations. Model biases in the boundary layer were substantially reduced based on this revised treatment, but biases in the free troposphere remain unexplained.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); European Commission (EU); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0011791; SC0006867; DE‐SC0006867
OSTI ID:
1392635
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1402387
Journal Information:
Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 43, Issue 17; ISSN 0094-8276
Publisher:
American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 28 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Oxidation of Volatile Organic Compounds as the Major Source of Formic Acid in a Mixed Forest Canopy journal March 2019
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Physicochemical uptake and release of volatile organic compounds by soil in coated-wall flow tube experiments with ambient air journal January 2019
Semi-volatile and highly oxygenated gaseous and particulate organic compounds observed above a boreal forest canopy journal January 2018
High gas-phase mixing ratios of formic and acetic acid in the High Arctic journal January 2018
Molecular identification of organic vapors driving atmospheric nanoparticle growth journal September 2019
Temporal variation of VOC fluxes measured with PTR-TOF above a boreal forest journal June 2017