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The chemical composition of aerosols from Wildland fires: Current state of the science and possible new directions (Hyattsville, MD 2013).
Citation:
Hays, M., A. Holder, B. Gullett, Chris Geron, AND B. Hemming. The chemical composition of aerosols from Wildland fires: Current state of the science and possible new directions (Hyattsville, MD 2013). International Smoke Symposium, Hyattsville,MD, October 21 - 24, 2013.
Impact/Purpose:
Wildland fire is a serious contributor to air pollution. In specific, carbonaceous aerosol particles from these fires are of toxicological and environmental concern. Determination of the chemical composition of these particles is important for understanding public health effects and for improving air quality and climate models that support regulatory policy.
Description:
Wildland fire emits a substantial quantity of aerosol to the atmosphere. These aerosols typically comprise a complex mixture of organic matter and refractory elemental or black carbon with a relatively minor contribution of inorganic matter from soils and plant micronutrients. Identification of individual chemical components in aerosols emitted from wildfire is important to understanding public health effects, climate change, and supports the dispersion, apportionment, and air quality models most relevant to regulatory policy. And while current analytical chemistry technology is offering unprecedented information about aerosol composition, a large fraction of organic aerosol released during wildland fires often remains unidentified. This presentation aims to examine the current state of the science with regard to molecular level identification of organic aerosol particles emitted from biomass burning with a focus on wildland fires. Not only will we examine the novel hyphenated chromatography-mass spectrometry tools being used to measure group-type chemistry and the individual molecular constituents in wildland fire aerosols, but we will also propose the use of additional analytical-chemical technology that may assist in further unraveling unidentified aerosol matter from this globally important aerosol source.