Spherical tarball particles form through rapid chemical and physical changes of organic matter in biomass-burning smoke
Abstract
Biomass burning (BB) emits enormous amounts of aerosol particles and gases into the atmosphere and thereby significantly influences regional air quality and global climate. A dominant particle type from BB is spherical organic aerosol particles commonly referred to as tarballs. Currently, tarballs can only be identified, using microscopy, from their uniquely spherical shapes following impaction onto a grid. Despite their abundance and potential significance for climate, many unanswered questions related to their formation, emission inventory, removal processes, and optical properties still remain. Here, we report analysis that supports tarball formation in which primary organic particles undergo chemical and physical processing within ~3 h of emission. Transmission electron microscopy analysis reveals that the number fractions of tarballs and the ratios of N and O relative to K, the latter a conserved tracer, increase with particle age and that the more-spherical particles on the substrates had higher ratios of N and O relative to K. Scanning transmission X-ray spectrometry and electron energy loss spectrometry analyses show that these chemical changes are accompanied by the formation of organic compounds that contain nitrogen and carboxylic acid. The results imply that the chemical changes increase the particle sphericity on the substrates, which correlates with particlemore »
- Authors:
-
- Department of Atmosphere, Ocean and Earth System Modeling Research, Meteorological Research Institute, 3050052 Tsukuba, Japan,
- Environmental and Climate Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973,
- Environmental and Climate Sciences, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973,, Center for Aerosol Science and Engineering, Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130,
- Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA 99352,
- Center for Sensor Systems and Technology, Aerodyne Research Inc., Billerica, MA 01821,
- Center for Global Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 3058506 Tsukuba, Japan,
- Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 1130033 Tokyo, Japan,
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287,, School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1564418
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1559998; OSTI ID: 1570765
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-212046-2019-JAAM; PNNL-SA-140926
Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0012704; KP1701000/57131; SC0014287; AC06-76RLO1830; 20568; AC05-76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Volume: 116 Journal Issue: 39; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 09 BIOMASS FUELS; transmission electron microscopy; organic aerosol; climate change; biomass burning; tarball
Citation Formats
Adachi, Kouji, Sedlacek, III, Arthur J., Kleinman, Lawrence, Springston, Stephen R., Wang, Jian, Chand, Duli, Hubbe, John M., Shilling, John E., Onasch, Timothy B., Kinase, Takeshi, Sakata, Kohei, Takahashi, Yoshio, and Buseck, Peter R. Spherical tarball particles form through rapid chemical and physical changes of organic matter in biomass-burning smoke. United States: N. p., 2019.
Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.1900129116.
Adachi, Kouji, Sedlacek, III, Arthur J., Kleinman, Lawrence, Springston, Stephen R., Wang, Jian, Chand, Duli, Hubbe, John M., Shilling, John E., Onasch, Timothy B., Kinase, Takeshi, Sakata, Kohei, Takahashi, Yoshio, & Buseck, Peter R. Spherical tarball particles form through rapid chemical and physical changes of organic matter in biomass-burning smoke. United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900129116
Adachi, Kouji, Sedlacek, III, Arthur J., Kleinman, Lawrence, Springston, Stephen R., Wang, Jian, Chand, Duli, Hubbe, John M., Shilling, John E., Onasch, Timothy B., Kinase, Takeshi, Sakata, Kohei, Takahashi, Yoshio, and Buseck, Peter R. Thu .
"Spherical tarball particles form through rapid chemical and physical changes of organic matter in biomass-burning smoke". United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900129116.
@article{osti_1564418,
title = {Spherical tarball particles form through rapid chemical and physical changes of organic matter in biomass-burning smoke},
author = {Adachi, Kouji and Sedlacek, III, Arthur J. and Kleinman, Lawrence and Springston, Stephen R. and Wang, Jian and Chand, Duli and Hubbe, John M. and Shilling, John E. and Onasch, Timothy B. and Kinase, Takeshi and Sakata, Kohei and Takahashi, Yoshio and Buseck, Peter R.},
abstractNote = {Biomass burning (BB) emits enormous amounts of aerosol particles and gases into the atmosphere and thereby significantly influences regional air quality and global climate. A dominant particle type from BB is spherical organic aerosol particles commonly referred to as tarballs. Currently, tarballs can only be identified, using microscopy, from their uniquely spherical shapes following impaction onto a grid. Despite their abundance and potential significance for climate, many unanswered questions related to their formation, emission inventory, removal processes, and optical properties still remain. Here, we report analysis that supports tarball formation in which primary organic particles undergo chemical and physical processing within ~3 h of emission. Transmission electron microscopy analysis reveals that the number fractions of tarballs and the ratios of N and O relative to K, the latter a conserved tracer, increase with particle age and that the more-spherical particles on the substrates had higher ratios of N and O relative to K. Scanning transmission X-ray spectrometry and electron energy loss spectrometry analyses show that these chemical changes are accompanied by the formation of organic compounds that contain nitrogen and carboxylic acid. The results imply that the chemical changes increase the particle sphericity on the substrates, which correlates with particle surface tension and viscosity, and contribute to tarball formation during aging in BB smoke. Finally, these findings will enable models to better partition tarball contributions to BB radiative forcing and, in so doing, better help constrain radiative forcing models of BB events.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.1900129116},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
number = 39,
volume = 116,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Sep 05 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Thu Sep 05 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1900129116
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:
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