Studies of dry acid deposition in the South Coast Air Basin: tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer measurements of HNO/sub 3/, HCHO and NO/sub 2/ and luminol NO/sub 2/ measurements in Claremont, California, September 1985. Final report, August 1985-July 1986

Technical Report · Tue Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1986

OSTI ID:7248393

Mackay, G I; Schiff, H I; Mayne, L K; Harris, G W

Two Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectrometer (TDLAS) systems were used to measure HNO/sub 3/. One system also measured formaldehyde (HCHO) atmosphere. Nitrogen dioxide (NO/sub 2/) was measured by the second TDLAS and by the LUMINOX, LMA-3 which is a new, small, simple and extremely sensitive instrument for NO/sub 2/ measurements. The importance of these measurements is the role that NO/sub 2/ plays as the direct precursor to gas phase HNO/sub 3/. Agreement between the HNO/sub 3/ measurements obtained by the 2 TDLAS systems were within the combined experimental errors. The diurnal behavior of the HNO/sub 3/ concentrations were quite regular with a maximum occuring between 15:00 and 18:00 each day. Maximum concentrations of 18 ppbv were observed on September 14th. HCHO exhibited similar behavior with the largest measured values of 14 ppbv occurring at 15:00 on the 13th. NO/sub 2/ showed somewhat more variable behaviour generally with two maxima, one in the afternoon and one about midnight. The TDLAS and LUMINOX were in good agreement with a few interesting exceptions.

• Research Organization: Unisearch Associates, Inc., Concord, Ontario (Canada)
• OSTI ID: 7248393
• Report Number(s): PB-86-244860/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ACID RAIN
AIR POLLUTION MONITORING
ALDEHYDES
ATMOSPHERIC PRECIPITATIONS
CALIFORNIA
CHALCOGENIDES
FEDERAL REGION IX
FORMALDEHYDE
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
NITRIC ACID
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN DIOXIDE
NITROGEN OXIDES
NORTH AMERICA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RAIN
USA