Relationship between optical attenuation and black carbon concentration for ambient and source particles

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:5653266

Gundel, L A; Dod, R L; Rosen, H; Novakov, T

Light absorption provides the basis for a fast and nondestructive method for determining concentrations of black carbon (BC). The laser transmission technique measures the attenuation (ATN) of visible light as it passes through filter samples. We have measured (BC) and ATN simultaneously for a large number of solvent-extracted source and ambient particle samples, using temperature-programmed evolved gas analysis with continuous light attenuation measurement. For all data with ATN less than or equal to 200, ATN is directly proportional to (BC), with the proportionality constant = 25.4 +- 1.7 cm/sup 2/ ..mu..g/sup -1/. Because the relationship between ATN and (BC) does not depend on the origin of the carbonaceous particles, measurement of ATN alone can provide a good estimate of the black carbon concentration. 12 references.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-76SF00098
• OSTI ID: 5653266
• Report Number(s): LBL-16105; CONF-8309166-3; ON: DE84001091
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ATTENUATION
CALIBRATION
CARBON
CARBON BLACK
DATA
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
ELEMENTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FILTERS
INFORMATION
MEASURING METHODS
NONMETALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARTICLES
PARTICULATES
RADIATIONS
TRANSMISSION
VISIBLE RADIATION