1] Total suspended particles (TSP) were collected at the summit of Mt. Tai (1534 m above sea level) on a daytime and nighttime basis during a summertime campaign (May-June 2006) and were characterized for organic molecular compositions using solvent extraction/derivatization and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry technique. The n-Alkanes, fatty acids, fatty alcohols, sugars, glycerol and polyacids, and phthalate esters were found as major organic compound classes, whereas lignin and resin products, sterols, aromatic acids, hopanes, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were detected as minor classes. Sugars (49.8-2115 ng m À3 , average 640 ng m À3 in daytime; 18.1-4348 ng m À3 , 799 ng m À3 in nighttime) were found to be the dominant compound class. Levoglucosan, a specific cellulose pyrolysis product, was detected as the most abundant single compound, followed by C 28 fatty alcohol, diisobutyl and di-n-butyl phthalates, C 29 n-alkane, C 16 and C 28 fatty acids, and malic acid. By grouping organic compounds based on their sources, we found that emission of terrestrial plant waxes was the most significant source (30-34%) of the TSP, followed by biomass burning products (25-27%) (e.g., levoglucosan and lignin and resin products), soil resuspension (15-18%) due to agricultural activities, secondary oxidation products (8-10%), plastic emission (3-10%), marine/microbial sources (6%), and urban/industrial emissions from fossil fuel use (4%). However, low molecular weight dicarboxylic acids (such as oxalic acid) of photochemical origin were not included in this study. Malic acid was found to be much higher than those reported in the ground level, suggesting an enhanced photochemical production in the free troposphere over mountain areas. Temporal variations of biomass burning tracers (e.g., levoglucosan, galactosan, mannosan) and some higher plant wax derived compound classes suggested that there were two major (E1 and E2) and one minor (E3) biomass-burning events during this campaign. Most of the compound classes showed higher concentrations in nighttime samples when organic aerosols can be long-range transported from different source regions to the summit of Mt. Tai above the planetary boundary layer (PBL). This study also demonstrates that the free troposphere over Mt. Tai is heavily influenced by field burning of agricultural wastes such as wheat straws in the North China Plain during the harvest season in early summer.

[1] Semicontinuous measurements of submicron water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) aerosol were made simultaneously with organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) in the Tokyo urban area in winter, summer, and fall 2004. The measurements of WSOC and OC/EC were made every 6 min and 1 hour, respectively, using a particle-into-liquid sampler (PILS) with a total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer and with an EC-OC analyzer using a thermal-optical technique. The PILS and 12-hour integrated filter measurements of WSOC agreed to within 12%. The WSOC mass concentrations and WSOC/OC ratio showed diurnal variations with peaks at 1200-1400 LT in summer and later in the afternoon in winter. On average, the WSOC/OC ratio was 0.20 and 0.35 mg C/mg C for winter and summer/late fall, respectively. The difference in the winter and summer frequency distributions of the WSOC/OC ratio suggests that the sampled air masses in summer and fall were more photochemically processed than those in winter. Secondary organic carbon (SOC) concentrations were estimated using the EC-tracer method. The measured WSOC was highly correlated with the derived SOC (r 2 = 0.61-0.79), with WSOC/SOC slopes of 0.67 to 0.75 mg C/mg C for each season. These results suggest that the WSOC and SOC were similar in their chemical characteristics in this study. Water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC) ( = OC-WSOC) correlated well with EC and CO (r 2 = 0.59-0.73). The diurnally averaged WIOC/EC ratios were nearly constant (1.1 ± 0.1 mg C/mg C) throughout the study periods, suggesting that motor vehicle emissions were an important source of WIOC. A dominant portion (about 90% or more) of the POC was water-insoluble, consistent with previous studies of POC.

Organic tracer compounds, as well as organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), and stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) of total carbon (TC) have been investigated in aerosol samples collected during early and late periods of the Mount Tai eXperiment 2006 (MTX2006) field campaign in the North China Plain. Total solvent-extractable fractions were investigated by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. More than 130 organic compounds were detected in the aerosol samples. They were grouped into twelve organic compound classes, including biomass burning tracers, biogenic primary sugars, biogenic secondary organic aerosol (SOA) tracers, and anthropogenic tracers such as phthalates, hopanes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In early June when the field burning activities of wheat straws in the North China Plain were very active, the total identified organics (2090 ± 1170 ng m^[-3]) were double those in late June (926 ± 574 ng m^[-3]). All the compound classes were more abundant in early June than in late June, except phthalate esters, which were higher in late June. Levoglucosan (88-1210 ng m^[-3], mean 403 ng m^[-3]) was found as the most abundant single compound in early June, while diisobutyl phthalate was the predominant species in late June. During the biomass-burning period in early June, the diurnal trends of most of the primary and secondary organic aerosol tracers were characterized by the concentration peaks observed at mid-night or in early morning, while in late June most of the organic species peaked in late afternoon. This suggests that smoke plumes from biomass burning can uplift the aerosol particulate matter to a certain altitude, which could be further transported to and encountered the summit of Mt. Tai during nighttime. On the basis of the tracer-based method for the estimation of biomass-burning OC, fungal-spore OC and biogenic secondary organic carbon (SOC), we estimate that an average of 24% (up to 64 %) of the OC in the Mt. Tai aerosols was due to biomass burning in early June, followed by the contribution of isoprene SOC (mean 4.3 %). In contrast, isoprene SOC was the main contributor (6.6 %) to OC, and only 3.0% of the OC was due to biomass burning in late June. In early June, δ13C of TC (-26.6 to -23.2 ‰, mean -25.0 ‰) were lower than those (-23.9 to -21.9 ‰, mean -22.9 ‰) in late June. In addition, a strong anti-correlation was found between levoglucosan and δ13C values. This study demonstrates that crop-residue burning activities can significantly enhance the organic aerosol loading and alter the organic composition and stable carbon isotopic composition of aerosol particles in the troposphere over the North China Plain

Aerosol (TSP) samples were collected at the summit of Mount Tai (elevation: 1534 m a.s.l., 36.25° N, 117.10° E) located in the North China Plain using a high-volume air sampler and pre-combusted quartz filters. Sampling was conducted on day/night or 3 h basis in the period from 29 May to 28 June 2006 during the field burning of wheat straw residue and the post-burning season. The filter samples were analyzed for low-molecular-weight dicarboxylic acids, ketoacids and α-dicarbonyls using capillary gas chromatography (GC) and GC-MS employing water extraction and butyl ester derivatization. Molecular distributions of dicarboxylic acids (C₂-C₁₁, 220–6070 ng m⁻³) were characterized by a predominance of oxalic (C₂) acid (105–3920 ng m⁻³) followed by succinic (C₄) or malonic (C₃) acid. Unsaturated aliphatic diacids, including maleic (M), isomaleic (iM) and fumaric (F) acids, were also detected together with aromatic diacids (phthalic, isophthalic and terephthalic acids). ω-oxocarboxylic acids (C₂-C₉, 24–610 ng m⁻³) were detected as the second most abundant compound class with the predominance of glyoxylic acid (11–360 ng m⁻³), followed by α-ketoacid (pyruvic acid, 3–140 ng m⁻³) and α-dicarbonyls (glyoxal, 1–230 ng m⁻³ and methylglyoxal, 2–120 ng m⁻³). We found that these levels (>6000 ng m⁻³ for diacids) are several times higher than those reported in Chinese megacities at ground levels. The concentrations of diacids increased from late May to early June, showing a maximum on 7 June, and then significantly decreased during the period 8–11 June, when the wind direction shifted from southerly to northerly. Similar temporal trends were found for ketocarboxylic acids and α-dicarbonyls as well as total carbon (TC) and water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC). The temporal variations of water-soluble organics were interpreted by the direct emission from the field burning of agricultural wastes (wheat straw) in the North China Plain and the subsequent photochemical oxidation of volatile and semi-volatile organic precursors emitted from field burning as well as dark ozonolysis of volatile organic compounds and other organics, accretion reactions and oxidation of nonvolatile organics such as unsaturated fatty acids. This study demonstrates that the field burning of agricultural wastes in early summer strongly influenced the air quality of the free troposphere over the North China Plain

Abstract.To better understand the size-segregated chemical composition of aged organic aerosols in the western North Pacific rim, day-and night-time aerosol samples were collected in Sapporo, Japan during summer 2005 using an Andersen impactor sampler with 5 size bins: D p <1.1, 1.1-2.0, 2.0-3.3, 3.3-7.0, >7.0 µm. Samples were analyzed for the molecular composition of dicarboxylic acids, ketoacids, α-dicarbonyls, and sugars, together with water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC), organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC) and inorganic ions. Based on the analyses of backward trajectories and chemical tracers, we found that during the campaign, air masses arrived from Siberia (a biomass burning source region) on 8-9 August, from China (an anthropogenic source region) on 9-10 August, and from the East China Sea/Sea of Japan (a mixed source receptor region) on 10-11 August. Most of the diacids, ketoacids, dicarbonyls, levoglucosan, WSOC, and inorganic ions (i.e., SO 2− 4 , NH + 4 and K + ) were enriched in fine particles (PM 1.1 ) whereas Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ and Cl − peaked in coarse sizes (>1.1 µm). Interestingly, OC, most sugar compounds and NO