Emission characteristics of black carbon in anthropogenic and biomass burning plumes over California during ARCTAS-CARB 2008

The impact of aerosols on regional air quality and climate necessitates improved understanding of their emission and microphysical properties. The size distributions of black carbon (BC) and light scattering particles (LSP) were measured with a single particle soot photometer on board the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the ARCTAS mission 2008. Air sampling was made in the air plumes of both urban and forest fire emissions over California during the CARB (California Air Resources Board) phase of the mission. A total of eleven plumes were identified using SO₂ and CH₃CN tracers for fossil fuel (FF) combustion and biomass burning (BB), respectively. The enhancements of BC and LSP in BB plumes were significantly higher compared to those in FF plumes. The average mass concentration of BC in BB plumes was more than twice that in FF plumes. Except for the BC/CO ratio, distinct emission ratios of BC/CO₂, BC/CH₃CN, CH₃CN/CO, and CO/CO₂ were observed in the plumes from the two sources. Similarly, the microphysical properties of BC and LSP also showed distinct behaviors. The BC count median diameter (CMD) of 115 ± 5 nm in FF plumes was smaller compared to 141 ± 9 nm in the BB plumes. BC aerosols were thickly coated in BB plumes, the average shell/core ratios were 1.47 and 1.24 in BB and FF plumes, respectively. In the total mass of submicron aerosols, organic aerosols constituted about 67% in the FF plumes and 84% in BB plumes. The contribution of sulfate was also significant in the FF plumes.

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Author Sahu, L.
Kondo, Y.
Moteki, N.
Takegawa, N.
Zhao, Y.
Cubison, M.
Jimenez, J.
Vay, S.
Diskin, G.
Wisthaler, A.
Mikoviny, T.
Huey, L.
Weinheimer, Andrew
Knapp, David
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2012-08-17T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:55:19.120336
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:12154
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Sahu, L., Kondo, Y., Moteki, N., Takegawa, N., Zhao, Y., Cubison, M., Jimenez, J., Vay, S., Diskin, G., Wisthaler, A., Mikoviny, T., Huey, L., Weinheimer, Andrew, Knapp, David. (2012). Emission characteristics of black carbon in anthropogenic and biomass burning plumes over California during ARCTAS-CARB 2008. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7wq04j8. Accessed 06 February 2025.

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