Title: Enhanced light absorption by mixed source black and brown carbon particles in UK winter

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9435 · OSTI ID:1252985
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [2];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [5];  [7];  [5];  [5];  [8];  [8]; ORCiD logo [8];  [9];  [9];  [10] more »;  [10];  [11];  [12]; ORCiD logo [13];  [14];  [15];  [16] « less
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Division; Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States). Cooperative Inst. for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES); OSTI
  2. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Division
  3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Division; Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
  5. Aerodyne Research, Inc. Billerica, MA (United States)
  6. Aerodyne Research, Inc. Billerica, MA (United States); Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX (United States)
  7. Aerodyne Research, Inc. Billerica, MA (United States); Boston College, Boston, MA (United States)
  8. Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States)
  9. Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
  10. Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom)
  11. Univ. of York (United Kingdom)
  12. Univ. of Leicester (United Kingdom)
  13. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology (KIT) (Germany)
  14. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland); Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (Switzerland)
  15. Univ. of Bern, Bern (Switzerland)
  16. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We report that black carbon (BC) and light-absorbing organic carbon (brown carbon, BrC) play key roles in warming the atmosphere, but the magnitude of their effects remains highly uncertain. Theoretical modelling and laboratory experiments demonstrate that coatings on BC can enhance BC’s light absorption, therefore many climate models simply assume enhanced BC absorption by a factor of ~1.5. However, recent field observations show negligible absorption enhancement, implying models may overestimate BC’s warming. Here we report direct evidence of substantial field-measured BC absorption enhancement, with the magnitude strongly depending on BC coating amount. Increases in BC coating result from a combination of changing sources and photochemical aging processes. When the influence of BrC is accounted for, observationally constrained model calculations of the BC absorption enhancement can be reconciled with the observations. In conclusion, we find that the influence of coatings on BC absorption should be treated as a source and regionally specific parameter in climate models.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0006002; SC0008937; SC0010019
OSTI ID:
1252985
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Vol. 6; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Radiative absorption enhancements by black carbon controlled by particle-to-particle heterogeneity in composition journal February 2020
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Light Absorption by Ambient Black and Brown Carbon and its Dependence on Black Carbon Coating State for Two California, USA, Cities in Winter and Summer journal February 2019
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Morphological and radiative characteristics of soot aggregates: Experimental and numerical research journal January 2020
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Optical properties of black carbon in cookstove emissions coated with secondary organic aerosols: Measurements and modeling journal July 2016
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An inter-comparison of black-carbon-related instruments in a laboratory study of biomass burning aerosol journal October 2018
Simultaneous transmission and absorption photometry of carbon-black absorption from drop-cast particle-laden filters journal March 2019
Evidence in biomass burning smoke for a light-absorbing aerosol with properties intermediate between brown and black carbon journal May 2019
Effects of photochemical oxidation on the mixing state and light absorption of black carbon in the urban atmosphere of China journal April 2017
Scaling Laws for Light Absorption Enhancement Due to Nonrefractory Coating of Atmospheric Black Carbon Aerosol journal November 2018
A Review of the Representation of Aerosol Mixing State in Atmospheric Models journal March 2019
Fine Particle Emissions from Sauna Stoves: Effects of Combustion Appliance and Fuel, and Implications for the Finnish Emission Inventory journal December 2019
Physicochemical Characteristics of Individual Aerosol Particles during the 2015 China Victory Day Parade in Beijing journal January 2018
Preface: Morphology and Internal Mixing of Atmospheric Particles journal July 2018
Deriving brown carbon from multiwavelength absorption measurements: method and application to AERONET and Aethalometer observations journal January 2016
Light absorption and morphological properties of soot-containing aerosols observed at an East Asian outflow site, Noto Peninsula, Japan journal January 2016
Optical properties of atmospheric fine particles near Beijing during the HOPE-J3A campaign journal January 2016
Ageing and hygroscopicity variation of black carbon particles in Beijing measured by a quasi-atmospheric aerosol evolution study (QUALITY) chamber journal January 2017
Formation of secondary organic aerosol coating on black carbon particles near vehicular emissions journal January 2017
Emission factors and light absorption properties of brown carbon from household coal combustion in China journal January 2017
Cloud droplet activation of black carbon particles coated with organic compounds of varying solubility journal January 2018
Effects of mixing state on optical and radiative properties of black carbon in the European Arctic journal January 2018
The influence of photochemical aging on light absorption of atmospheric black carbon and aerosol single-scattering albedo journal January 2018
Effects of brown coatings on the absorption enhancement of black carbon: a numerical investigation journal January 2018
Radiative effect and climate impacts of brown carbon with the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5) journal January 2018
Production of particulate brown carbon during atmospheric aging of residential wood-burning emissions journal January 2018
Quantifying black carbon light absorption enhancement with a novel statistical approach journal January 2018
Sources and physicochemical characteristics of black carbon aerosol from the southeastern Tibetan Plateau: internal mixing enhances light absorption journal January 2018
Amplification of light absorption of black carbon associated with air pollution journal January 2018
Biogenic and anthropogenic sources of aerosols at the High Arctic site Villum Research Station journal January 2019
Significant climate impacts of aerosol changes driven by growth in energy use and advances in emission control technology journal January 2019
Vertical characterization of aerosol optical properties and brown carbon in winter in urban Beijing, China journal January 2019
Characterization of black carbon-containing fine particles in Beijing during wintertime journal January 2019
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Biomass-burning-derived particles from a wide variety of fuels – Part 1: Properties of primary particles journal January 2020
Effects of brown coatings on the absorption enhancement of black carbon: a numerical investigation journal June 2018
Vertical characterization of aerosol optical properties and brown carbon in winter in urban Beijing, China journal August 2018
Light absorption and morphological properties of soot-containing aerosols observed at an East Asian outflow site, Noto Peninsula, Japan posted_content September 2015
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The filter-loading effect by ambient aerosols in filter absorption photometers depends on the coating of the sampled particles journal January 2017
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Production of particulate brown carbon during atmospheric aging of residential wood-burning emissions text January 2018
Quantification of online removal of refractory black carbon using laser-induced incandescence in the single particle soot photometer [Supplemental Data]
  • Aiken, Allison C.; McMeeking, Gavin R.; Levin, Ezra J. T.
  • figshare-Supplementary information for journal article at DOI: 10.1080/02786826.2016.1173647, 1 DOCX file (40.41 kB) https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3156049
preprint April 2016
Quantification of online removal of refractory black carbon using laser-induced incandescence in the single particle soot photometer text January 2016
Optical properties of black carbon in cookstove emissions coated with secondary organic aerosols: Measurements and modeling text January 2016
Optical properties of black carbon in cookstove emissions coated with secondary organic aerosols: Measurements and modeling text January 2016
Investigation of the absorption Ångström exponent and its relation to physicochemical properties for mini-CAST soot text January 2018
Investigation of the absorption Ångström exponent and its relation to physicochemical properties for mini-CAST soot text January 2018
An inter-comparison of black-carbon-related instruments in a laboratory study of biomass burning aerosol text January 2018
Simultaneous transmission and absorption photometry of carbon-black absorption from drop-cast particle-laden filters text January 2020
Simultaneous Transmission and Absorption Photometry of Carbon-Black Absorption from Drop-Cast Particle-Laden Filters text January 2019
Evidence in biomass burning smoke for a light-absorbing aerosol with properties intermediate between brown and black carbon text January 2019
Evidence in biomass burning smoke for a light-absorbing aerosol with properties intermediate between brown and black carbon text January 2019

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