Grantee Research Project Results
2014 Progress Report: Cloud Condensation Nuclei Measurements During the SENEX 2013 Campaign: Observations, Analysis and Impacts
EPA Grant Number: R835410Title: Cloud Condensation Nuclei Measurements During the SENEX 2013 Campaign: Observations, Analysis and Impacts
Investigators: Nenes, Athanasios
Institution: Georgia Institute of Technology
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: June 15, 2013 through June 14, 2016 (Extended to June 14, 2017)
Project Period Covered by this Report: June 15, 2014 through June 14,2015
Project Amount: $185,790
RFA: Anthropogenic Influences on Organic Aerosol Formation and Regional Climate Implications (2012) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , Climate Change , Air
Objective:
The southeastern United States is characterized by high biogenic and anthropogenic emissions and active photochemistry. The interaction between biogenic and anthropogenic aerosol is not well characterized and contribute to the anomalous cooling trend observed in the southeast United States. With support of the EPA STAR grant, we carried out measurements of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) data collected aboard the NOAA WP-3D during the June-July 2013 Southeast Atmosphere Study (SENEX 2013), and on the ground at the Centerville SOAS site to address the following scientific questions:
- What are the hygroscopicity, CCN activity and activation kinetics of aerosols in the Southeast United States (SE US)? How do these parameters relate to aerosol chemical composition and size distribution? What is the spatiotemporal evolution of these parameters?
- How does this evolution affect CCN activity, hygroscopicity, and droplet activation kinetics of aerosol?
- What are the similarities and differences of SE US aerosol against other locations of the globe (urban, rural, continental, remote, anthropogenic, biogenic, biomass burning)? How does the mixing of anthropogenic and biogenic aerosol precursors affect observed hygroscopicity and activation kinetics?
- What is the indirect forcing associated with SE US aerosol? How complex should be the size distribution-composition-CCN-activity relationship, to adequately represent the aerosol-CCN link?
Progress Summary:
Continued development of Scanning Flow CCN Analysis.
During this proposal, we developed and implemented a hardware module consisting of an Arduino microcontroller coupled to a modified mass flow controller and attached it to the Continuous Flow Streamwise Thermal Gradient CCN (CFSTGC) unit for precise flow control and flexibility to follow any arbitrary flowscan profile and waveform during Scanning Flow CCN Analysis (SFCA; measurement of CCN spectra). The use of the new hardware module reduces the uncertainty in supersaturation compared to published SFCA operation, which allows for efficient usage of downcycle data.
We are now in the process of carrying out a thorough and comprehensive study on the performance of the augmented SFCA instrument. A specific question is on the waveform used for the flow cycles; to date most SFCA used triangular flow cycles (e.g., Moore et al., 2009; Moore et al., 2012) but from SENEX and on, we have begun using sinusoidal scan cycles. The question remains on which waveform is inherently better for CCN spectra measurements – and whether a different waveform (exponential, sigmoidal ramps) may offer a larger dynamic range or larger precision for CCN spectra measurements. Currently we are planning such a study, which combines laboratory work with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model analysis of the instrument performance.
SENEX data and analysis: hygroscopicity, CCN activity and impact on clouds.
Currently, we are continuing the analysis of the SENEX data. Although we have completed computation of hygroscopicity and CCN concentrations, we are also in the process of using laboratory analysis of calibrations to refine the instantaneous values of supersaturation developed in the instrument in the field data.
We also have been working, together with the leads of SENEX and SAS, on manuscripts that provide overviews of the campaigns (Warneke et al., in review; Carlton et al., in preparation). In Warneke et al., we describe the experimental approach, the science goals, the aircraft, the measurements and early results of the NOAA SENEX campaign. The instrument payload is summarized including detection limits, accuracy, precision and time resolutions for all gas-and-aerosol phase instruments. In Carlton et al., a synthesis of all the ground-based and aircraft measurements during the whole SAS campaign is underway, providing a set of answers to all the scientific questions that motivated the field campaign overall.
SOAS data and analysis: understanding the contribution of each aerosol factor to its volatility.
The volatility distribution of the organic aerosol (OA) sources during the Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS) was measured using an Aerodyne High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) and a thermodenuder. Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) analysis was applied on both the ambient and thermodenuded high resolution mass spectra. Four sources were identified: a more oxidized oxygenated OA factor (MO-OOA), a less oxidized oxygenated OA (LO-OOA) factor, a biogenic related factor (Isoprene-OA) and a biomass burning OA factor (BBOA). Using the mass fraction remaining (MFR) and a thermodenuder model the volatility distribution and the vaporization enthalpy of each PMF factor for an accommodation coefficient of unity were calculated. For the comparisons the components were categorized in low volatility organic compounds (LVOCs) and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). We are in the process of understanding how each AMS factor can be explained in terms of a combination of LVOCs and SVOCs, for use in organic aerosol models.
References:
Moore, R.H. and Nenes, A. (2009) Scanning Flow CCN Analysis - A Method for Fast Measurements of CCN Spectra, Aer.Sci.Tech., 43, 1192-1207.
Moore, R.H., Raatikainen, T., Langridge, J.M., Bahreini, R., Brock, C.A., Holloway, J.S., Lack, D.A., Middlebrook, A.M., Perring, A.E., Schwarz, J.P., Spackman J.R., and Nenes, A. (2012) CCN Spectra, Hygroscopicity, and Droplet Activation Kinetics of Secondary Organic Aerosol Resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, Env.Sci.Tech., doi: 10.1021/es203362w.
Journal Articles on this Report : 8 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 19 publications | 19 publications in selected types | All 19 journal articles |
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Budisulistiorini SH, Li X, Bairai ST, Renfro J, Liu Y, Liu YJ, McKinney KA, Martin ST, McNeill VF, Pye HOT, Nenes A, Neff ME, Stone EA, Mueller S, Knote C, Shaw SL, Zhang Z, Gold A, Surratt JD. Examining the effects of anthropogenic emissions on isoprene-derived secondary organic aerosol formation during the 2013 Southern Oxidant and Aerosol Study (SOAS) at the Look Rock, Tennessee ground site. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 2015;15(15):8871-8888. |
R835410 (2013) R835410 (2014) R835410 (2015) R835410 (Final) R835401 (2014) R835401 (Final) R835404 (2014) R835404 (2015) R835404 (Final) |
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Cerully KM, Hite Jr. JR, McLaughlin M, Nenes A. Toward the determination of joint volatility-hygroscopicity distributions:development and response characterization for single-component aerosol. Aerosol Science and Technology 2014;48(3):296-312. |
R835410 (2013) R835410 (2014) R835410 (2015) R835410 (Final) |
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Cerully KM, Bougiatioti A, Hite Jr. JR, Guo H, Xu L, Ng NL, Weber R, Nenes A. On the link between hygroscopicity, volatility, and oxidation state of ambient and water-soluble aerosols in the southeastern United States. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 2015;15(15):8679-8694. |
R835410 (2013) R835410 (2014) R835410 (2015) R835410 (Final) |
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Guo H, Xu L, Bougiatioti A, Cerully KM, Capps SL, Hite Jr. JR, Carlton AG, Lee S-H, Bergin MH, Ng NL, Nenes A, Weber RJ. Fine-particle water and pH in the southeastern United States. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 2015;15(9):5211-5228. |
R835410 (2013) R835410 (2014) R835410 (2015) R835410 (Final) R834799 (2015) R834799 (2016) R834799 (Final) R834799C001 (2015) R834799C001 (Final) R835041 (2015) R835041 (Final) |
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Raatikainen T, Lin JJ, Cerully KM, Lathem TL, Moore RH, Nenes A. CCN data interpretation under dynamic operation conditions. Aerosol Science and Technology 2014;48(5):552-561. |
R835410 (2013) R835410 (2014) R835410 (Final) |
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Warneke C, Trainer M, de Gouw JA, Parrish DD, Fahey DW, Ravishankara AR, Middlebrook AM, Brock CA, Roberts JM, Brown SS, Neuman JA, Lerner BM, Lack D, Law D, Hubler G, Pollack I, Sjostedt S, Ryerson TB, Gilman JB, Liao J, Holloway J, Peischl J, Nowak JB, Aikin KC, Min K-E, Washenfelder RA, Graus MG, Richardson M, Markovic MZ, Wagner NL, Welti A, Veres PR, Edwards P, Schwarz JP, Gordon T, Dube WP, McKeen SA, Brioude J, Ahmadov R, Bougiatioti A, Lin JJ, Nenes A, Wolfe GM, Hanisco TF, Lee BH, Lopez-Hilfiker FD, Thornton JA, Keutsch FN, Kaiser J, Mao J, Hatch CD. Instrumentation and measurement strategy for the NOAA SENEX aircraft campaign as part of the Southeast Atmosphere Study 2013. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 2016;9(7):3063-3093. |
R835410 (2013) R835410 (2014) R835410 (2015) R835410 (Final) R835406 (Final) |
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Weber RJ, Guo H, Russell AG, Nenes A. High aerosol acidity despite declining atmospheric sulfate concentrations over the past 15 years. Nature Geoscience 2016;9:282-285. |
R835410 (2013) R835410 (2014) R835410 (2015) R835410 (Final) R834799 (2016) R834799 (Final) R834799C001 (Final) |
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Xu L, Guo H, Boyd CM, Klein M, Bougiatioti A, Cerully KM, Hite JR, Isaacman-VanWertz G, Kreisberg NM, Knote C, Olson K, Koss A, Goldstein AH, Hering SV, de Gouw JA, Baumann K, Lee S-H, Nenes A, Weber RJ, Ng NL. Effects of anthropogenic emissions on aerosol formation from isoprene and monoterpenes in the southeastern United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2015;112(1):37-42. |
R835410 (2013) R835410 (2014) R835410 (2015) R835410 (Final) R834799 (2015) R834799 (2016) R834799 (Final) R834799C001 (2015) R834799C001 (Final) R835403 (2014) R835403 (2015) R835403 (Final) |
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Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.