Showing papers by "Robert J. Yokelson published in 2004"

Comprehensive laboratory measurements of biomass‐burning emissions: 2. First intercomparison of open‐path FTIR, PTR‐MS, and GC‐MS/FID/ECD

Abstract: [1] Oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOC) can dominate atmospheric organic chemistry, but they are difficult to measure reliably at low levels in complex mixtures. Several techniques that have been used to speciate nonmethane organic compounds (NMOC) including OVOC were codeployed/intercompared in well-mixed smoke generated by 47 fires in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Fire Sciences Combustion Facility. The agreement between proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) and open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR) was excellent for methanol (PT/FT = 1.04 ± 0.118) and good on average for phenol (0.843 ± 0.845) and acetol (∼0.81). The sum of OP-FTIR mixing ratios for acetic acid and glycolaldehyde agreed (within experimental uncertainty) with the PTR-MS mixing ratios for protonated mass 61 (PT/FT = 1.17 ± 0.34), and the sum of OP-FTIR mixing ratios for furan and isoprene agreed with the PTR-MS mixing ratios for protonated mass 69 (PT/FT = 0.783 ± 0.465). The sum of OP-FTIR mixing ratios for acetone and methylvinylether accounted for most of the PTR-MS protonated mass 59 signal (PT/FT = 1.29 ± 0.81), suggesting that one of these compounds was underestimated by OP-FTIR or that it failed to detect other compounds that could contribute at mass 59. Canister grab sampling followed by gas chromatography (GC) with mass spectrometry (MS), flame ionization detection (FID), and electron capture detection (ECD) analysis by two different groups agreed well with OP-FTIR for ethylene, acetylene, and propylene. However, these propylene levels were below those observed by PTR-MS (PT/FT = 2.33 ± 0.89). Good average agreement between PTR-MS and GC was obtained for benzene and toluene. At mixing ratios above a few parts per billion the OP-FTIR had advantages for measuring sticky compounds (e.g., ammonia and formic acid) or compounds with low proton affinity (e.g., hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde). Even at these levels, only the PTR-MS measured acetonitrile and acetaldehyde. Below a few ppbv only the PTR-MS measured a variety of OVOC, but the possibility of fragmentation, interference, and sampling losses must be considered.

Emissions from miombo woodland and dambo grassland savanna fires

Abstract: Airborne measurements of trace gases and particles over and downwind of two prescribed savanna fires in Zambia are described. The measurements include profiles through the smoke plumes of condensation nucleus concentrations and normalized excess mixing ratios of particles and gases, emission factors for 42 trace gases and seven particulate species, and vertical profiles of ambient conditions. The fires were ignited in plots of miombo woodland savanna, the most prevalent savanna type in southern Africa, and dambo grassland savanna, an important enclave of miombo woodland ecosystems. Emission factors for the two fires are combined with measurements of fuel loading, combustion factors, and burned area (derived from satellite burn scar retrievals) to estimate the emissions of trace gases and particles from woodland and grassland savanna fires in Zambia and southern Africa during the dry season (May-October) of 2000. It is estimated that the emissions of CO2, CO, total hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides (NOx as NO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), formaldehyde, methyl bromide, total particulate matter, and black carbon from woodland and grassland savanna fires during the dry season of 2000 in southern Africa contributed 12.3%, 12.6%, 5.9%, 10.3%, 7.5%, 24.2%, 2.8%, 17.5%, and 11.1%, respectively, of the average annual emissions from all types of savanna fires worldwide. In 2000 the average annual emissions of methane, ethane, ethene, acetylene, propene, formaldehyde, methanol, and acetic acid from the use of biofuels in Zambia were comparable to or exceeded dry season emissions of these species from woodland and grassland savanna fires in Zambia.

Heterogeneous chemistry involving methanol in tropospheric clouds

Abstract: In this report we analyze airborne measurements to suggest that methanol in biomass burning smoke is lost heterogeneously in clouds. When a smoke plume intersected a cumulus cloud during the SAFARI 2000 field project, the observed methanol gas phase concentration rapidly declined. Current understanding of gas and aqueous phase chemistry cannot explain the loss of methanol documented by these measurements. Two plausible heterogeneous reactions are proposed to explain the observed simultaneous loss and production of methanol and formaldehyde, respectively. If the rapid heterogeneous processing of methanol, seen in a cloud impacted by smoke, occurs in more pristine clouds, it could affect the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere on a global scale.