Abstract. The adverse health effects associated with ambient aerosol particles have been well documented, but it is still unclear which aerosol properties are most important for their negative health impact. Some studies suggest the oxidative effects of particle-bound reactive oxygen species (ROS) are potential major contributors to the toxicity of particles. Traditional ROS measurement techniques are labour-intensive, give poor temporal resolution and generally have significant delays between aerosol sampling and ROS analysis. However, many oxidising particle components are reactive and thus potentially short-lived. Thus, a technique to quantify particle-bound ROS online would be beneficial to quantify also the short-lived ROS components.We introduce a new portable instrument to allow online, continuous measurement of particle-bound ROS using a chemical assay of 2 7 -dichlorofluorescein (DCFH) with horseradish peroxidase (HRP), via fluorescence spectroscopy. All components of the new instrument are attached to a containing shell, resulting in a compact system capable of automated continuous field deployment over many hours or days.From laboratory measurements, the instrument was found to have a detection limit of ∼ 4 nmol [H 2 O 2 ] equivalents per cubic metre (m 3 ) air, a dynamic range up to at least ∼ 2000 nmol [H 2 O 2 ] equivalents per m 3 air and a time resolution of ≤ 12 min. The instrument allows for ∼ 16 h automated measurement if unattended and shows a fast response to changes in concentrations of laboratory-generated oxidised organic aerosol. The instrument was deployed at an urban site in London, and particulate ROS levels of up to 24 nmol [H 2 O 2 ] equivalents per m 3 air were detected with PM 2.5 concentrations up to 28 µg m −3 .The new and portable Online Particle-bound ROS Instrument (OPROSI) allows fast-response quantification; this is important due to the potentially short-lived nature of particlebound ROS as well as fast-changing atmospheric conditions, especially in urban environments. The instrument design allows for automated operation and extended field operation with twice-daily presence of an operator. As well as having sensitivity suitable for ambient level measurement, the instrument is also suitable at concentrations such as those required for laboratory and chamber toxicological studies.
Abstract.A three channel broadband cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (BBCEAS) instrument has been developed for airborne measurements of atmospheric trace gases involved in night-time oxidation chemistry and air quality. The instrument was deployed on board the Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements BAe 146-301 atmospheric research aircraft during the Role of Nighttime Chemistry in Controlling the Oxidising Capacity of the Atmosphere (RONOCO) measurement campaigns between December 2009 and January 2011. In its present configuration (i.e. specifications of the cavity optics and spectrometers) the instrument is designed to measure NO 3 , N 2 O 5 (by detection of NO 3 after thermal dissociation of N 2 O 5 ), H 2 O and NO 2 by characterising the wavelength dependent optical attenuation within ambient samples by molecular absorption around 662 nm (NO 3 and H 2 O) and 445 nm (NO 2 ). This paper reports novel advancements in BBCEAS instrumentation including a refined method for performing BBCEAS mirror reflectivity calibrations using measurements of the phase delay introduced by the optical cavities to amplitude modulated radiation. Furthermore, a new methodology is introduced for fitting the strong but unresolved transitions of water vapour, which is required for accurate retrieval of water absorption features from the 662 nm absorption band used to measure NO 3 concentrations. The paper also details the first examCorrespondence to: R. L. Jones (rlj1001@cam.ac.uk) ple of airborne measurements of NO 3 , N 2 O 5 and NO 2 over Europe from a flight over the North Sea and Thames Estuary on the night of the 20 July 2010, one of the most polluted days of the RONOCO summertime flying period. As part of this analysis, the performance of the BBCEAS instrument is assessed by comparing airborne NO 2 measurements to those reported concurrently by a photolytic chemiluminescence based detector.
Abstract. An intercomparison of zenith-sky UV-visible spectrometers was held at Camborne, UK, for 2 weeks in September 1994. Eleven instruments participated, from nine different European institutes which were involved with the Second European Stratospheric Arctic and Mid-latitude Experiment (SESAME) campaign. Four instruments were of the Systeme d'Analyse d'Observations Z6nithales (SAOZ) type, while the rest were particular to the institutes involved. The results showed that the SAOZ instruments were consistent to within 3% (10 DU) for ozone and 5% for NO 2. For ozone the results from these instruments agreed well with total ozone measurements by Dobson and Brewer spectrophotometers and integrated ozonesondes when the air mass factors for the SAOZ were calculated using the ozonesonde profiles. Differences of up to 10% in ozone and 30% in NO 2 were found between different instruments. In some cases these differences are attributable to the different absorption cross sections used in the analysis of the spectra, but other discrepancies remain to be investigated. A prominent source of error identified in the campaign was uncertainty in the derivation of the amount of absorber in the reference spectrum, which can contribute an error of up to 3% (10
Isoprene concentrations were measured at four heights below, within, and above the forest canopy in Wytham Woods (United Kingdom) throughout the summer of 2018 using custom‐built gas chromatographs (the iDirac). These observations were complemented with selected ancillary variables, including air temperature, photosynthetically active radiation, occasional leaf gas exchange measurements, and satellite retrievals of normalized difference vegetation and water indices. The campaign overlapped with a long and uninterrupted heatwave accompanied by moderate drought. Peak isoprene concentrations during the heatwave‐drought were up to a factor of 4 higher than those before or after. Higher temperatures during the heatwave could not account for all the observed isoprene; the enhanced abundances correlated with drought stress. Leaf‐level emissions confirmed this and also included compounds associated with ecosystem stress. This work highlights that a more in‐depth understanding of the effects of drought stress is required to better characterize isoprene emissions.
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