Atmospheric Sciences Commons^™

High Altitude Ballooning As A Platform For Measuring Ozone Uptake Over Agricultural Landscapes, Thomas Sykora, Mark Potosnak

DePaul Discoveries

Measuring plant health is a key aspect in maximizing crop outputs. One often overlooked risk to crop fields is damage caused by stomatal ozone uptake; measuring this uptake is an important tool in understanding crop losses. Traditional methods for measuring plant ozone uptake are prohibitively expensive and rely on equipment that cannot easily be moved. Here, we propose high-altitude weather ballooning as a cost-effective alternative for measuring ozone uptake on a regional (~10 km) spatial scale. Ozonesounde data was obtained with weather balloons launched from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration research station in Boulder, Colorado. This data was then …

Representing Methane Emissions From Wet Tropical Forest Soils Using Microbial Functional Groups Constrained By Soil Diffusivity, Debjani Sihi, Xiaofeng Xu, Mónica Salazar Ortiz, Christine S. O'Connell, Whendee L. Silver, Carla López-Lloreda, Julia M. Brenner, Ryan K. Quinn, Jana R. Phillips, Brent D. Newman, Melanie A. Mayes

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Tropical ecosystems contribute significantly to global emissions of methane (CH₄), and landscape topography influences the rate of CH₄ emissions from wet tropical forest soils. However, extreme events such as drought can alter normal topographic patterns of emissions. Here we explain the dynamics of CH₄ emissions during normal and drought conditions across a catena in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. Valley soils served as the major source of CH₄ emissions in a normal precipitation year (2016), but drought recovery in 2015 resulted in dramatic pulses in CH₄ emissions from all topographic positions. Geochemical parameters …

Carbon Dioxide And Particulate Matter Concentration On Hampton Roads Air Quality, Gregory Hubbard

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

Hampton Roads has been a maritime crossroads for the last 400 years. Industrialization has impacted the coastal region for the last 250 years. The expansion of the Port of Virginia in 2019 has created dense traffic in the region resulting in impacts to air quality. Two waste products that affect humans are particulate matter and carbon dioxide. Both respective emissions can cause adverse effects on humans, such as asthma, some lung cancers, and other respiratory distress. Scientists and health practitioners are studying the effects of particulate matter on human health. Hampton Roads, in particular, because of its unique location on …

The Role Of Oxygen In Stimulating Methane Production In Wetlands, Jared L. Wilmoth, Jeffra K. Schaefer, Danielle R. Schlesinger, Spencer W. Roth, Patrick G. Hatcher, Julie K. Shoemaker, Xinning Zhang

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Methane (CH₄), a potent greenhouse gas, is the second most important greenhouse gas contributor to climate change after carbon dioxide (CO₂). The biological emissions of CH₄ from wetlands are a major uncertainty in CH₄ budgets. Microbial methanogenesis by Archaea is an anaerobic process accounting for most biological CH₄ production in nature, yet recent observations indicate that large emissions can originate from oxygenated or frequently oxygenated wetland soil layers. To determine how oxygen (O₂) can stimulate CH₄ emissions, we used incubations of Sphagnum peat to demonstrate that the temporary exposure of …

The Role Of Ammonia In Atmospheric New Particle Formation And Implications For Cloud Condensation Nuclei, Arshad Arjunan Nair

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Atmospheric ammonia has received recent attention due to (a) its increasing trend across various regions of the globe; (b) the associated direct and indirect (through PM2.5) effects on human health, the ecosystem, and climate; and (c) recent evidence of its role in significantly enhancing atmospheric new particle formation (NPF or nucleation) rates. The mechanisms behind nucleation in the atmosphere are not fully understood, although over the last decade there have been significant developments in our understanding. This dissertation aims at improving our understanding of atmospheric ammonia in the atmosphere, its spatiotemporal variability, its role in atmospheric new particle formation, and …

Physical Characteristics And Microphysical Processing Of Atmospheric Aerosol In Rural And Urban New York State, Joseph Marto

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Atmospheric aerosol has profound impacts on air quality, though particles of differing sizes can have profoundly different characteristics which are understated when measurements are reported as a single parameter (typically number concentration or total mass). To address some of these concerns and to better understand the nature of atmospheric aerosol, continuous particle size distributions have been measured at two sites in New York State. Measurement was performed for particle diameters between 7.6nm - 20µm at Pinnacle State Park (Addison, New York; March 2017-April 2018) and Queens College (May 2018-September 2019) at a 5-minute time resolution. At Pinnacle State Park, aerosol …

Fifteen Years Of Hfc-134a Satellite Observations: Comparisons With Slimcat Calculations, Jeremy J. Harrison, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Christopher D. Boone, Sandip S. Dhomse, Peter F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The phase out of anthropogenic ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons under the terms of the Montreal Protocol led to the development and worldwide use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in refrigeration, air conditioning, and as blowing agents and propellants. Consequently, over recent years, the atmospheric abundances of HFCs have dramatically increased. HFCs are powerful greenhouse gases and are now controlled under the terms of the 2016 Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. HFC-134a is currently the most abundant HFC in the atmosphere, breaking the 100 ppt barrier in 2018, and can be measured in the Earth's atmosphere by the satellite remote-sensing instrument …

Line-Of-Sight Winds And Doppler Effect Smearing In Ace-Fts Solar Occultation Measurements, Chris D. Boone, Johnathen Steffen, Jeff Crouse, Peter F. Bernath

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Line-of-sight wind profiles are derived from Doppler shifts in infrared solar occultation measurements from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometers (ACE-FTS), the primary instrument on SCISAT, a satellite-based mission for monitoring the Earth’s atmosphere. Comparisons suggest a possible eastward bias from 20 m/s to 30 m/s in ACE-FTS results above 80 km relative to some datasets but no persistent bias relative to other datasets. For instruments operating in a limb geometry, looking through a wide range of altitudes, smearing of the Doppler effect along the line of sight can impact the measured signal, particularly for saturated absorption lines. Implications …

Stratospheric Fluorine As A Tracer Of Circulation Changes: Comparison Between Infrared Remote-Sensing Observations And Simulations With Five Modern Reanalyses, M. Prignon, S. Chabrillat, M. Friedrich, D. Smale, S. E. Strahan, Peter F. Bernath, M. P. Chipperfield, S. S. Dhomse, W. Feng, D. Minganti, C. Servais, E. Mahieu

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Using multidecadal time series of ground-based and satellite Fourier transform infrared measurements of inorganic fluorine (i.e., total fluorine resident in stratospheric fluorine reservoirs), we investigate stratospheric circulation changes over the past 20 years. The representation of these changes in five modern reanalyses is further analyzed through chemical-transport model (CTM) simulations. From the observations but also from all reanalyses, we show that the inorganic fluorine is accumulating less rapidly in the Southern Hemisphere than in the Northern Hemisphere during the 21st century. Comparisons with a study evaluating the age-of-air of these reanalyses using the same CTM allow us to link this …

The Aging And Impacts Of Atmospheric Soot: Closing The Gap Between Experiments And Models, Ogochukwu Yvonne Enekwizu

Dissertations

The main goal of this dissertation is to generate data and parameterizations to accurately represent soot aerosols in atmospheric models. Soot from incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass burning is a major air pollutant and a significant contributor to climate warming. The environmental impacts of soot are strongly dependent on the particle morphology and mixing state, which evolve continuously during atmospheric transport via a process known as aging. To make predictions of soot impacts on the environment, most atmospheric models adopt simplifications of particle structure and mixing state, which lead to substantial uncertainties. Using an experimentally constrained modeling approach, …

Atmospheric Measurements With Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas), Marcelo I. Guzman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

This Special Issue provides the first literature collection focused on the development and implementation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their integration with sensors for atmospheric measurements on Earth. The research covered in the Special Issue combines chemical, physical, and meteorological measurements performed in field campaigns as well as conceptual and laboratory work. Useful examples for the development of platforms and autonomous systems for environmental studies are provided, which demonstrate how careful the operation of sensors aboard UAS must be to gather information for remote sensing in the atmosphere. The work serves as a key collection of articles to introduce …

Cosore: A Community Database For Continuous Soil Respiration And Other Soil-Atmosphere Greenhouse Gas Flux Data, Ben Bond-Lamberty, Danielle S. Christianson, Avni Malhotra, Stephanie C. Pennington, Debjani Sihi, Amir Aghakouchak, Hassan Anjileli, M. Altaf Arain, Juan J. Armesto, Samaneh Ashraf, Mioko Ataka, Dennis Baldocchi, Thomas Andrew Black, Nina Buchmann, Mariah S. Carbone, Shih-Chieh Chang, Patrick Crill, Peter S. Curtis, Eric A. Davidson, Ankur R. Desai, John E. Drake, Tarek S. El-Madany, Michael Gavazzi, Carolyn-Monika Görres, Christopher M. Gough, Michael Goulden, Jillian Gregg, Omar Gutiérrez Del Arroyo, Jin-Sheng He, Takashi Hirano, Anya Hopple, Holly Hughes, Järvi Järveoja, Rachhpal Jassal, Jinshi Jian, Haiming Kan, Jason Kaye, Yuji Kominami, Naishen Liang, David Lipson, Catriona A. Macdonald, Kadmiel Maseyk, Kayla Mathes, Marguerite Mauritz, Melanie A. Mayes, Steve Mcnulty, Guofang Miao, Mirco Migliavacca, Scott Miller, Chelcy F. Miniat, Jennifer G. Nietz, Mats B. Nilsson, Asko Noormets, Hamidreza Norouzi, Christine S. O'Connell, Bruce Osborne, Cecilio Oyonarte, Zhuo Pang, Matthias Peichl, Elise Pendall, Jorge F. Perez-Quezada, Claire L. Phillips, Richard P. Phillips, James W. Raich, Alexandre A. Renchon, Nadine K. Ruehr, Enrique P. Sánchez-Cañete, Matthew Saunders, Kathleen E. Savage, Marion Schrumpf, Russell L. Scott, Ulli Seibt, Whendee L. Silver, Wu Sun, Daphne Szutu, Kentaro Takagi, Masahiro Takagi, Munemasa Teramoto, Mark G. Tjoelker, Susan Trumbore, Masahito Ueyama, Rodrigo Vargas, Ruth K. Varner, Joseph Verfaillie, Christoph Vogel, Jinsong Wang, Greg Winston, Tana E. Wood, Juying Wu, Thomas Wutzler, Jiye Zeng, Tianshan Zha, Quan Zhang, Junliang Zou

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Globally, soils store two to three times as much carbon as currently resides in the atmosphere, and it is critical to understand how soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and uptake will respond to ongoing climate change. In particular, the soil-to-atmosphere CO₂ flux, commonly though imprecisely termed soil respiration (R_S), is one of the largest carbon fluxes in the Earth system. An increasing number of high-frequency R_S measurements (typically, from an automated system with hourly sampling) have been made over the last two decades; an increasing number of methane measurements are being made with such systems …

Iron Speciation In Pm2.5 From Urban, Agriculture, And Mixed Environments In Colorado, Usa, Joseph R. Salazar, David J. Pfotenhauer, Frank Leresche, Fernando L. Rosario-Ortiz, Michael P. Hannigan, Sirine C. Fakra, Brian Majestic

Chemistry and Biochemistry: Faculty Scholarship

Atmospheric iron solubility varies depending on whether the particles are collected in rural or urban areas, with urban areas showing increased iron solubility. In this study, we investigate if the iron species present in different environments affects its ultimate solubility. Field data are presented from the Platte River Air Pollution and Photochemistry Experiment (PRAPPE), aimed at understanding the interactions between organic carbon and trace elements in atmospheric particulate matter (PM). 24-hr PM2.5 samples were collected during the summer and winter (2016–2017), at three different sites on the Eastern Colorado plains: an urban, agricultural, and a mixed site. Downtown Denver had …

Long Term Air Quality Analysis In Reference To Thermal Power Plants Using Satellite Data In Singrauli Region, India, H. K. Romana, Ramesh P. Singh, D. P. Shukla

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The exponentially growing population and related anthropogenic activities have led to modifications in local environment. The change in local environment, evolving pattern of land use, concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols alter the energy balance of our climate system. This alteration in climate is leading to pre-mature deaths worldwide. This study analyses the air quality of Singrauli region, Madhya Pradesh, India for the past 15 years. Otherwise known as Urjanchal “the energy capital” of India has been declared as critically polluted by CPCB. The study provides an updated list of thermal power plants in the study area and their emission …

Global Atmospheric Budget Of Acetone: Air-Sea Exchange And The Contribution To Hydroxyl Radicals, Siyuan Wang, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca H. Schwantes, Kelvin H. Bates, Daniel J. Jacob, Emily V. Fischer, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Alan J. Hills, Louisa K. Emmons, Laura L. Pan, Shawn Honomichl, Simone Tilmes, Jean‐François Lamarque, Mingxi Yang, Christa A. Marandino, E. S. Saltzman, Warren J. De Bruyn, Sohiko Kameyama, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Yuko Omori, Samuel R. Hall, Kirk Ullmann, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Bruce C. Daube, Róisín Commane, Kathryn Mckain, Colm Sweeney, Alexander B. Thames, David O. Miller, William H. Brune, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. Digangi, Steven C. Wofsy

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Acetone is one of the most abundant oxygenated volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere. The oceans impose a strong control on atmospheric acetone, yet the oceanic fluxes of acetone remain poorly constrained. In this work, the global budget of acetone is evaluated using two global models: CAM‐chem and GEOS‐Chem. CAM‐chem uses an online air‐sea exchange framework to calculate the bidirectional oceanic acetone fluxes, which is coupled to a data‐oriented machine‐learning approach. The machine‐learning algorithm is trained using a global suite of seawater acetone measurements. GEOS‐Chem uses a fixed surface seawater concentration of acetone to calculate the oceanic fluxes. Both …

Glyoxal’S Impact On Dry Ammonium Salts: Fast And Reversible Surface Aerosol Browning, David O. De Haan Phd, Lelia N. Hawkins Phd, Kevin Jansen, Hannah G. Welsh, Raunak Pednekar, Alexia De Loera, Natalie G. Jimenez, Margaret A. Tolbert Phd, Mathieu Cazaunau Phd, Aline Gratien, Antonin Bergé, Edouard Pangui, Paola Formenti, Jean-François Doussin

Chemistry and Biochemistry: Faculty Scholarship

Alpha-dicarbonyl compounds are believed to form brown carbon in the atmosphere via reactions with ammonium sulfate (AS) in cloud droplets and aqueous aerosol particles. In this work, brown carbon formation in AS and other aerosol particles was quantified as a function of relative humidity (RH) during exposure to gas-phase glyoxal (GX) in chamber experiments. Under dry conditions (RH < 5%), solid AS, AS/glycine, and methylammonium sulfate aerosol particles brown within minutes upon exposure to GX, while sodium sulfate particles do not. When GX concentrations decline, browning goes away, demonstrating that this dry browning process is reversible. Declines in aerosol albedo are found to be a function of [GX]², and are consistent between AS and AS/glycine aerosol. Dry methylammonium sulfate aerosol browns 4´ more than dry AS aerosol, but deliquesced AS aerosol browns much less than dry AS aerosol. Optical measurements at 405, 450, and 530 nm provide an …

Glyoxal’S Impact On Dry Ammonium Salts: Fast And Reversible Surface Aerosol Browning (Raw Data), David O. De Haan Phd, Lelia N. Hawkins Phd, Margaret A. Tolbert Phd, Jean-François Doussin

Chemistry and Biochemistry: Faculty Scholarship

Alpha-dicarbonyl compounds are believed to form brown carbon in the atmosphere via reactions with ammonium sulfate (AS) in cloud droplets and aqueous aerosol particles. In this work, brown carbon formation in AS and other aerosol particles was quantified as a function of relative humidity (RH) during exposure to gas-phase glyoxal (GX) in chamber experiments. Under dry conditions (RH < 5%), solid AS, AS/glycine, and methylammonium sulfate aerosol particles brown within minutes upon exposure to GX, while sodium sulfate particles do not. When GX concentrations decline, browning goes away, demonstrating that this dry browning process is reversible. Declines in aerosol albedo are found to be a function of [GX]2, and are consistent between AS and AS/glycine aerosol. Dry methylammonium sulfate aerosol browns 4´ more than dry AS aerosol, but deliquesced AS aerosol browns much less than dry AS aerosol. Optical measurements at 405, 450, and 530 nm provide an estimated Ångstrom absorbance coefficient of -16 ±4. This coefficient and the empirical relationship between GX and albedo are used to estimate an upper limit to global radiative forcing by brown carbon formed by 70 ppt GX reacting with AS (+7.6 ´10-5 W/m2). This quantity is < 1% of the total radiative forcing by secondary brown carbon, but occurs almost entirely in the ultraviolet range.

The zipped data files are in the following formats: Igor experiments (.pxp), Word documents (.docx), Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx), organized by experiment number. “Optical” files contain cavity attenuated phase shift (CAPS) extinction, scattering and albedo data; PILS/waveguide data (experiments 1,2, and 5 only); …

Challenges In Quantifying Air‐Water Carbon Dioxide Flux Using Estuarine Water Quality Data: Case Study For Chesapeake Bay, Maria Herrmann, Raymond G. Najjar, Fei Da, Jaclyn R. Friedman, Marjorie A. M. Friedrichs, Sreece Goldberger, Alana Menendez, Elizabeth H. Shadwick, Edward G. Stets, Pierre St-Laurent

Publications and Research

Estuaries play an uncertain but potentially important role in the global carbon cycle via CO₂ outgassing. The uncertainty mainly stems from the paucity of studies that document the full spatial and temporal variability of estuarine surface water partial pressure of carbon dioxide ( pCO₂). Here, we explore the potential of utilizing the abundance of pH data from historical water quality monitoring programs to fill the data void via a case study of the mainstem Chesapeake Bay (eastern United States). We calculate pCO₂ and the air-water CO₂ flux at monthly resolution from 1998 to …

Karena Mckinney: Mapping A Clearer Picture Of Air Pollution's Effects, Christina Nunez

Colby Magazine

"If we want to control air quality and address climate change, the solution won't involve fiddling with nature's emissions-it will be about cleaning up man-made ones." -Karena McKinney, associate professor of atmospheric chemistry

Synergistic Use Of Remote Sensing And Modeling For Estimating Net Primary Productivity In The Red Sea With Vgpm, Eppley-Vgpm, And Cbpm Models Intercomparison, Wenzhao Li, Surya Prakash Tiwari, Hesham El-Askary, Mohamed Ali Qurban, Vassilis Amiridis, K. P. Manikandan, Michael J. Garay, Olga V. Kalashnikova, Thomas C. Piechota, Daniele C. Struppa

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Primary productivity (PP) has been recently investigated using remote sensing-based models over quite limited geographical areas of the Red Sea. This work sheds light on how phytoplankton and primary production would react to the effects of global warming in the extreme environment of the Red Sea and, hence, illuminates how similar regions may behave in the context of climate variability. study focuses on using satellite observations to conduct an intercomparison of three net primary production (NPP) models--the vertically generalized production model (VGPM), the Eppley-VGPM, and the carbon-based production model (CbPM)--produced over the Red Sea domain for the 1998-2018 time period. …

Sulfur Dioxide From The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Satellite, Doug Cameron

College of Sciences Posters

The version 4.0 dataset from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) on SCISAT, released in March of 2019, has sulfur dioxide (SO₂) volume mixing ratio (VMR) profiles as a routine data product. From this dataset, global SO₂ distributions between the altitudes of 10.5 km and 23.5 km are analyzed. The global distribution of all SO₂ VMR data by altitude is broken down into 30° and 5° latitude zones. Seasonality of the global SO₂ distribution is explored. Volcanic SO₂ plumes are isolated in the dataset and compared with extinction data from the …

Methanethiol, Dimethyl Sulfide And Acetone Over Biologically Productive Waters In The Southwest Pacific Ocean, Sarah J. Lawson, Cliff S. Law, Mike J. Harvey, Thomas G. Bell, Carolyn F. Walker, Warren J. De Bruyn, Eric S. Saltzman

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Atmospheric methanethiol (MeSH_a), dimethyl sulfide (DMS_a) and acetone (acetone_a) were measured over biologically productive frontal waters in the remote southwest Pacific Ocean in summertime 2012 during the Surface Ocean Aerosol Production (SOAP) voyage. MeSH_a mixing ratios varied from below the detection limit (< 10 ppt) up to 65 ppt and were 3 %–36 % of parallel DMS_a mixing ratios. MeSH_a and DMS_a were correlated over the voyage (R²=0.3, slope = 0.07) with a stronger correlation over a coccolithophore-dominated phytoplankton bloom (R²=0.5, slope 0.13). The diurnal cycle for MeSH_a shows similar behaviour to DMS_a with mixing ratios …

Surface Reservoirs Dominate Dynamic Gas-Surface Partitioning Of Many Indoor Air Constituents, Chen Wang, Douglas B. Collins, Caleb Arata, Allen H. Goldstein, James M. Mattila, Delphine K. Farmer, Laura Ampollini, Peter F. Decarlo, Atila Novoselac, Marina E. Vance, William W. Nazaroff, Jonathan P.D. Abbatt

Faculty Journal Articles

Human health is affected by indoor air quality. One distinctive aspect of the indoor environment is its very large surface area that acts as a poorly characterized sink and source of gas-phase chemicals. In this work, air-surface interactions of 19 common indoor air contaminants with diverse properties and sources were monitored in a house using fast-response, on-line mass spectrometric and spectroscopic methods. Enhanced-ventilation experiments demonstrate that most of the contaminants reside in the surface reservoirs and not, as expected, in the gas phase. They participate in rapid air-surface partitioning that is much faster than air exchange. Phase distribution calculations are …

Air/Sea Transfer Of Highly Soluble Gases Over Coastal Waters, J. G. Porter, Warren J. De Bruyn, S. D. Miller, E. S. Saltzman

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The deposition of soluble trace gases to the sea surface is not well studied due to a lack of flux measurements over the ocean. Here we report simultaneous air/sea eddy covariance flux measurements of water vapor, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), and momentum from a coastal North Atlantic pier. Gas transfer velocities were on average about 20% lower for SO₂ than for H₂O. This difference is attributed to the difference in molecular diffusivity between the two molecules (D _{SO 2}/D _{H 2O} = 0.5), in reasonable agreement with bulk parameterizations in air/sea gas …

An Annual Time Series Of Weekly Size-Resolved Aerosol Properties In The Megacity Of Metro Manila, Philippines, Connor Stahl, Melliza Templonuevo Cruz, Paola Angela Bañaga, Grace Betito, Rachel A. Braun, Mojtaba Azadi Aghdam, Maria Obiminda L. Cambaliza, Genevieve Rose Lorenzo, Alexander B. Macdonald, Preciosa Corazon Pabroa, John Robin Yee, James Bernard Simpas, Armin Sorooshian

Physics Faculty Publications

Size-resolved aerosol samples were collected in Metro Manila between July 2018 and October 2019. Two Micro-Orifice Uniform Deposit Impactors (MOUDI) were deployed at Manila Observatory in Quezon City, Metro Manila with samples collected on a weekly basis for water-soluble speciation and mass quantification. Additional sets were collected for gravimetric and black carbon analysis, including during special events such as holidays. The unique aspect of the presented data is a year-long record with weekly frequency of size-resolved aerosol composition in a highly populated megacity where there is a lack of measurements. The data are suitable for research to understand the sources, …

Ozone And Reactive Oxidized Nitrogen Chemistry In The Northeast U.S, Matthew Ninneman

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Ongoing reductions in oxides of nitrogen concentrations ([NOx] = nitric oxide ([NO]) + nitrogen dioxide ([NO2])) throughout the continental United States (U.S.) have important implications for tropospheric ozone (O3) and reactive oxidized nitrogen chemistry (NOy ≈ NOx + nitric acid (HNO3) + particle nitrate (pNO3) + peroxy nitrates (PNs) + alkyl nitrates (ANs)). Specifically, decreasing [NOx] concentrations have likely (1) increased the sensitivity of O3 to the [NOx] level, and (2) affected NOy speciation and partitioning. An understanding of the impacts of continued [NOx] reductions is needed to inform current and future air pollution control strategies, especially since the National …

Volcanic Impact On Stratospheric Chlorine Chemistry And Perchlorate Formation: Evidence From Ice Cores, Joshua Andrew Kennedy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perchlorate, suspected to be chemically formed in both the troposphere and stratosphere, has been recently measured in Arctic snow and ice cores. These comprise both discontinuous snow and ice cores from the Canadian Arctic and a continuous record of perchlorate was compiled from an analysis of Greenland ice cores. While the background perchlorate concentration typically is very low, a few spikes in concentration coinciding with deposition of volcanic sulfate were observed in the Greenland record, suggesting that perchlorate levels in the atmosphere may be impacted by volcanic eruptions. As of yet, no work has been done to investigate the connection …

Nrlmsis 2.0: A Whole-Atmosphere Empirical Model Of Temperature And Neutral Species Densities, J. T. Emmert, D. P. Drob, J. M. Picone, D. E. Siskind, M. Jones Jr., M. G. Mlynczak, Peter F. Bernath, X. Chu, E. Doornbos, B. Funke, L. P. Goncharenko, M. E. Hervig, M. J. Schwartz, P. E. Sheese, F. Vargas, B. P. Williams, T. Yuan

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

NRLMSIS® 2.0 is an empirical atmospheric model that extends from the ground to the exobase and describes the average observed behavior of temperature, eight species densities, and mass density via a parametric analytic formulation. The model inputs are location, day of year, time of day, solar activity, and geomagnetic activity. NRLMSIS 2.0 is a major, reformulated upgrade of the previous version, NRLMSISE-00. The model now couples thermospheric species densities to the entire column, via an effective mass profile that transitions each species from the fully mixed region below ~70 km altitude to the diffusively separated region above ~200 km. Other …

Applications Of Drones In Atmospheric Chemistry, Travis J. Schuyler

Theses and Dissertations--Chemistry

The emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) has changed the composition of the atmosphere during the Anthropocene. A major technical and scientific challenge is quantifying the resulting fugitive trace gas fluxes under variable meteorological conditions. Accurately documenting the sources and magnitude of GHGs emission is an important undertaking for discriminating contributions of different processes to radiative forcing. Therefore, the adverse environmental and health effects of undetected gas leaks motivates new methods of detecting, characterizing, and quantifying plumes of fugitive trace gases. Currently, there is no mobile platform able to quantify trace gases at altitudes(UASs), or drones, can be deployed on-site in …

Changes In Pm2.5 Peat Combustion Source Profiles With Atmospheric Aging In An Oxidation Flow Reactor, Judith C. Chow, Junji Cao, Lung-Wen Anthony Chen, Xiaoliang Wang, Qiyuan Wang, Jie Tian, Steven Sai Hang Ho, Adam C. Watts, Tessa B. Carlson, Steven D. Kohl, John G. Watson

Environmental & Global Health Faculty Research

Smoke from laboratory chamber burning of peat fuels from Russia, Siberia, the USA (Alaska and Florida), and Malaysia representing boreal, temperate, subtropical, and tropical regions was sampled before and after passing through a potential-aerosol-mass oxidation flow reactor (PAM-OFR) to simulate intermediately aged (∼2 d) and well-aged (∼7 d) source profiles. Species abundances in PM2.5 between aged and fresh profiles varied by several orders of magnitude with two distinguishable clusters, centered around 0.1 % for reactive and ionic species and centered around 10 % for carbon. Organic carbon (OC) accounted for 58 %–85 % of PM2.5 mass in fresh profiles with …