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Laboratory and field based evaluations of chromatography related performance of the Monitor for AeRosols and GAses in ambient Air (MARGA)
Citation:
Chen, X. AND Johnt Walker. Laboratory and field based evaluations of chromatography related performance of the Monitor for AeRosols and GAses in ambient Air (MARGA). AAAR 2017, Raleigh, NC, October 16 - 20, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
Time-resolved methods capable of speciating the atmospheric reactive nitrogen and sulfur budgets are needed to examine processes of air-surface exchange and aerosol dynamics. The Monitor for AeRosols and GAses in ambient air (MARGA), which is becoming more widely used in the U.S., Europe and Asia, is a commercially available instrument that measures soluble inorganic nitrogen and sulfur compounds at the hourly time scale by online liquid ion chromatography. While the instrument has been compared against other measurement systems in the field, the chromatography related performance of the system has not been rigorously evaluated.
Description:
The semi-continuous Monitor for AeRosols and Gases in Ambient air (MARGA) was evaluated using laboratory and field data with a focus on chromatography. The performance and accuracy assessment revealed various errors and uncertainties resulting from mis-identification and mis-integration of chromatogram peaks by MARGA automated software. To aid data reprocessing efficiency and flexibility, an alternative chromatography data processing software was adopted to further evaluate MARGA generated data for method detection limits as well as accuracy and precision. Such reprocessing and calibration significantly improved data quality by lowering method detection limits (by a factor of 1.5) and reducing variability between parallel sampler boxes. Further evaluation of instrument performance, including examination of diurnal patterns of observed gaseous and particulate water soluble species (NH3, SO2, HNO3, NH4+, SO42- and NO3-) as well fine particle neutralization state, was conducted during an intensive field campaign. The evaluation of MARGA chromatography software revealed various potential issues encountered during monitoring especially when ambient concentrations were low. Under such circumstances a bias as high as 30% could be associated with un-examined and un-screened MARGA datasets in addition to invalid data due to peak mis-identification and mis-integration. Furthermore, calibration and verification of accuracy by external standards is recommended for additional quality control given the current reliance on a single point internal standard. Analysis of field measurements across different synoptic meteorological patterns, including a NO3- rich arctic air mass, demonstrate that the MARGA is capable of resolving rapid changes in PM2.5 composition.