Physics Commons^™

Steady-State Aerosol Distributions In The Extra-Tropical, Lower Stratosphere And The Processes That Maintain Them, J. Wilson, Shan-Hu Lee, J. Reeves, C. Brock, H. Jonsson, B. Lafleur, M. Loewenstein, J. Podolske, E. Atlas, K. Boering, G. Toon, D. Fahey, T. Bui, G. Diskin, F. Moore

Shan-Hu Lee

Measurements of aerosol, N2O and OCS made in the Northern Hemisphere below 21 km altitude following the eruption of Pinatubo are presented and analyzed. After September 1999, the oxidation of OCS and sedimentation of particles in the extra-tropical overworld north of 45 N are found to maintain the aerosol in a steady state. This analysis empirically links precursor gas to aerosol abundance throughout this region. These processes are tracked with age-of-air which offers advantages over tracking as a function of latitude and altitude. In the extra-tropical, lowermost stratosphere, normalized volume distributions appear constant in time after the fall of 1999. …

Isoprene Suppression Of New Particle Formation In A Mixed Deciduous Forest, V. P. Kanawade, B. T. Jobson, A. B. Guenther, M. E. Erupe, S. N. Pressley, S. N. Tripathi, Shan-Hu Lee

Shan-Hu Lee

Production of new particles over forests is an important source of cloud condensation nuclei that can affect climate. While such particle formation events have been widely observed, their formation mechanisms over forests are poorly understood. Our observations made in a mixed deciduous forest with large isoprene emissions during the summer displayed a surprisingly rare occurrence of new particle formation (NPF). Typically, NPF events occur around noon but no NPF events were observed during the 5 weeks of measurements. The exceptions were two evening ultrafine particle events. During the day, sulfuric acid concentrations were in the 106 cm−3 range with very …

The Effect Of Trimethylamine On Atmospheric Nucleation Involving H2so4, M. E. Erupe, A. A. Viggiano, Shan-Hu Lee

Shan-Hu Lee

Field observations and quantum chemical calculations have shown that organic amine compounds may be important for new particle formation involving H₂SO₄. Here, we report laboratory observations that investigate the effect of trimethylamine (TMA) on H₂SO₄-H₂O nucleation made under aerosol precursor concentrations typically found in the lower troposphere ([H₂SO₄] of 10⁶−10⁷ cm⁻³; [TMA] of 180–1350 pptv). The threshold [H₂SO₄] needed to produce the unity J was from 10⁶−10⁷ cm⁻³ and the slopes of Log …

Laboratory Studies Of H2so4/H2o Binary Homogeneous Nucleation From The So2+Oh Reaction: Evaluation Of The Experimental Setup And Preliminary Results, L. Young, D. Benson, F. Kameel, J. Pierce, H. Junninen, M. Kulmala, Shan-Hu Lee

Shan-Hu Lee

Binary homogeneous nucleation (BHN) of sulphuric acid and water (H2SO4/H2O) is one of the most important atmospheric nucleation processes, but laboratory observations of this nucleation process are very limited and there are also large discrepancies between different laboratory studies. The difficulties associated with these experiments include wall loss of H2SO4 and uncertainties in estimation of H2SO4 concentration ([H2SO4]) involved in nucleation. We have developed a new laboratory nucleation setup to study H2SO4/H2O BHN kinetics and provide relatively constrained [H2SO4] needed for nucleation. H2SO4 is produced from the SO2+OH→HSO3 reaction and OH radicals are produced from water vapor UV absorption. The …

New Particle Growth And Shrinkage Observed In Subtropical Environments, L. H. Young, Shan-Hu Lee, V. P. Kanawade, T-C. Hsiao, Y. L. Lee, B-F. Hwang, Y-J. Liou, H-T. Hsu, P-J. Tsai

Shan-Hu Lee

We present the first systematic analysis for new particle formation (NPF), growth and shrinkage of new particles at four different sites in subtropical central Taiwan. A total of 14 NPF events were identified from 137 days of ambient measurements during a cold and warm season. The measured formation rates of 10 nm particles (J₁₀) and growth rates were in the range of 4.4–30 cm⁻³s⁻¹ and 7.4–24 nm h⁻¹, respectively. The onset of NPF events coincided with decreases of condensation sink (CS) and increases of SO₂ under enhanced atmospheric mixing and dilution. …

Ternary Homogeneous Nucleation Of H2so4, Nh3, And H2o Under Conditions Relevant To The Lower Troposphere, D. Benson, J. Yu, A. Markovich, Shan-Hu Lee

Shan-Hu Lee

Ternary homogeneous nucleation (THN) of H2SO4, NH3 and H2O has been used to explain new particle formation in various atmospheric regions, yet laboratory measurements of THN have failed to reproduce atmospheric observations. Here, we report first laboratory observations of THN made under conditions relevant to the lower troposphere ([H2SO4] of 106–107 cm−3, [NH3] of 0.08–20 ppbv, and a temperature of 288 K). Our observations show that NH3 can enhance atmospheric H2SO4aerosol nucleation and the enhancement factor (EF) in nucleation rate (J) due to NH3 (the ratio of Jmeasured with vs. without NH3) increases linearly with increasing [NH3] and increases with …

The Effects Of Airmass History On New Particle Formation In The Free Troposphere: Case Studies, D. Benson, Li-Hao Young, Shan-Hu Lee, T. Campos, D. Rogers, J. Jensen

Shan-Hu Lee

Recent aircraft studies showed that new particle formation (NPF) is very active in the free troposphere. And, these observations lead to a new question: when does NPF not occur? Here, we provide case studies to show how different meteorological parameters affect NPF in the upper troposphere, using the aerosol size distributions measured at latitudes from 18° N–52° N and altitudes up to 14 km during the NSF/NCAR GV Progressive Science Missions. About 95% of the total samples showed the NPF feature with median number concentrations of particles with diameters from 4 to 9 nm (N4–9), 288±199 cm−3, and the total …

Near-Unity Nuclear Polarization With An Open-Source 129xe Hyperpolarizer For Nmr And Mri, Panayiotis Nikolaou, Aaron M. Coffey, Laura L. Walkup, Brogan M. Gust, Nicholas Whiting, Hayley Newton, Scott Barcus, Iga Muradyan, Mikayel Dabaghyan, Gregory D. Moroz, Matthew S. Rosen, Samuel Patz, Michael J. Barlow, Eduard Y. Chekmenev, Boyd M. Goodson

Nicholas Whiting

Franck-Hertz Experiment, Mario Yuuji Harper, Blake Moore

Mario Yuuji Harper

The phenomenon investigated in this experiment was whether or not it was possible to excite atoms by low-energy electron bombardment, and to determine if the energy transferred from the colliding electrons were always in discrete amounts. This was investigated using thermally excited electrons that were accelerated across a potential through a homogenous gas of a single element. A slowing potential was applied at the anode making electrons that transferred their energy via inelastic collisions to lose their energy before arriving at the detector, this caused drastic decreases in the current observed. These decreases in current always occurred at the same …

Geometric-Phase Interference In A Mn12 Single-Molecule Magnet With Four-Fold Rotational Symmetry, S T. Adams, E H. Da Silva Neto, S Datta, J F. Ware, Christos Lampropoulos, G Christou, Y Myaesoedov, E Zeldov, Jonathan R. Friedman

Christos Lampropoulos

We study the magnetic relaxation rate Gamma of the single-molecule magnet Mn12-tBuAc as a function of magnetic field component HT transverse to the molecule's easy axis. When the spin is near a magnetic quantum tunneling resonance, we find that Gamma increases abruptly at certain values of HT. These increases are observed just beyond values of HT at which a geometric-phase interference effect suppresses tunneling between two excited energy levels. The effect is washed out by rotating HT away from the spin's hard axis, thereby suppressing the interference effect. Detailed numerical calculations of Gamma using the known spin Hamiltonian accurately reproduce …

Measurements Of Nh3 Linestrengths And Collisional Broadening Coefficients In N2, O2, Co2, And H2o Near 1103.46 Cm−1, Kyle Owen, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Laser-based ammonia gas sensors have useful applications in many fields including combustion, atmospheric monitoring, and medical diagnostics. Calibration-free trace gas sensors require the spectroscopic parameters including linestrengths and collisional broadening coefficients to be known. Ammonia's strong ν2 vibrational band between View the MathML source has the high absorption strength needed for sensing small concentrations. Within this band, the 1103.46 cm−1 feature is one of the strongest and has minimal interference from CO2 and H2O. However, the six rotational transitions that make up this feature have not been studied previously with absorption spectroscopy due to their small line spacing ranging from …

Effects Of N2o And O2 Addition To Nitrogen Townsend Dielectric Barrier Discharges At Atmospheric Pressure On The Absolute Ground-State Atomic Nitrogen Density, Et. Es-Sebbar, N. Gherardi, F. Massines

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Absolute ground-state density of nitrogen atoms N (2p3 4S3/2) in non-equilibrium Townsend dielectric barrier discharges (TDBDs) at atmospheric pressure sustained in N2/N2O and N2/O2 gas mixtures has been measured using Two-photon absorption laser-induced fluorescence (TALIF) spectroscopy. The quantitative measurements have been obtained by TALIF calibration using krypton as a reference gas. We previously reported that the maximum of N (2p3 4S3/2) atom density is around 3 × 1014 cm−3 in pure nitrogen TDBD, and that this maximum depends strongly on the mean energy dissipated in the gas. In the two gas mixtures studied here, results show that the absolute N …

Determination Of Kinetic Parameters From The Thermogravimetric Data Set Of Biomass Samples, Karol Postawa, Wojciech M. Budzianowski

Wojciech Budzianowski

This article describes methods of the determination of kinetic parameters from the thermogravimetric data set of biomass samples. It presents the methodology of the research, description of the needed equipment, and the method of analysis of thermogravimetric data. It describes both methodology of obtaining quantitative data such as kinetic parameters as well as of obtaining qualitative data like the composition of biomass. The study is focused mainly on plant biomass because it is easy in harvesting and preparation. Methodology is shown on the sample containing corn stover which is subsequently pyrolysed. The investigated sample show the kinetic of first order …

Temperature-Dependent Absorption Cross-Section Measurements Of 1-Butene (1-C4h8) In Vuv And Ir, Et-Touhami Es-Sebbar, Yves Benilan, Aamir Farooq

Dr. Et-touhami Es-sebbar

Vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) and infrared (IR) absorption cross-section measurements of 1-butene (1-C4H8; CH2=CHCH2CH3; Butylene) are reported over the temperature range of 296–529 K. The VUV measurements are performed between 115 and 205 nm using synchrotron radiation as a tunable VUV light source. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is employed to measure absorption cross-section and band strengths in the IR region between 1.54 and 25 μm (∼6500–400 cm−1). The measured room-temperature VUV and IR absorption cross-sections are compared with available literature data and are found to be in good agreement. The oscillator strength for the electronic transition (A1A′→X1A′) around 150–205 nm …