ARM West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE) Fourier Transform Infrared Filter Sampling Systems Field Campaign Report
- Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States). Scripps Inst. of Oceanography
West Antarctica is one of the most rapidly warming regions in the world (Bromwich et al. 2013; Steig et al. 2009) and the warming can directly cause sea level rise (King et al. 2012). In situ measurements are needed to examine and quantify the meteorological conditions in order to precisely understand the effect of warm air and clouds on the West Antarctic Ice Shelf (WAIS). The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE) is designed to collect measurements with advanced cloud and aerosol instrumentation at West Antarctica. The Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) filter sampling systems were deployed as part of the ARM West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE) campaign to measure organic aerosol characteristics at McMurdo Station. As a coastal station at the southern end of Ross Island, McMurdo Station has a meteorological relationship with the WAIS via circulation patterns in the Ross and Amundsen Seas. Thirteen months of continuous observations of aerosol particle composition extended from December 2016 to January 2017. Filter samples were collected at McMurdo on pre-scanned Teflon filters (Teflon, Pall Inc., 37mm diameter) behind PM1 sharp-cut cyclones (SCC2.229 PM1, BGI Inc). Samples were collected each week with approximately 50-90 m3 air filtered per sample. Samples were frozen and transported below 0°C to the Scripps laboratory for FTIR spectroscopy analysis. A Bruker Tensor 27 FTIR spectrometer with a deuterated triglycine sulfate (DTGS) detector (Bruker, Waltham, MA) was used to scan the filters both before and after sampling. An automated algorithm (Takahama et al. 2013) was applied to quantify the mass of the organic functional groups. Four groups (alkane, amine, alcohol, and carboxylic acid) had absorption peaks above the limits of quantification, and the sum of the mass of the four functional groups is the quantified organic mass (OM). Absorption peaks for other groups (organosulfate, organonitrate, aromatic, and alkene group) were identified and fit but they were below the limit of quantification for more than 90% of the samples and are excluded. Similar FTIR measurements has been conducted in dozens of field campaigns around the world, including arctic regions (Russell et al. 2011). Local particle emissions from airports, diesel generators, and local transportation affected all aerosol measurements at various times during this project. The ARM Aerosol Measurement Science Group is aware of the issue and is working to develop algorithms to flag the data. This influence is evident in the FTIR measurements as it is associated with specific chemical signatures. DOE and the National Science Foundation, which manages the U.S. Antarctic Program, supported this collaboration for AWARE.
- 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:
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-ACO5-7601830
- OSTI ID:
- 1480312
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/SC-ARM-17-026
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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