Influence of biomass burning from South Asia at a high-altitude mountain receptor site in China

Abstract

Abstract. Highly time-resolved in situ measurements of airborne particles were conducted at Mt. Yulong (3410 m above sea level) on the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in China from 22 March to 14 April 2015. The detailed chemical composition was measured by a high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer together with other online instruments. The average mass concentration of the submicron particles (PM 1 ) was 5.7 ± 5.4 µg m −3 during the field campaign, ranging from 0.1 up to 33.3 µg m −3 . Organic aerosol (OA) was the dominant component in PM 1 , with a fraction of 68 %. Three OA factors, i.e., biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA), biomass-burning-influenced oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA-BB) and oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA), were resolved using positive matrix factorization analysis. The two oxygenated OA factors accounted for 87 % of the total OA mass. Three biomass burning events were identified by examining the enhancement of black carbon concentrations and the f 60 (the ratio of the signal at m/z 60 from the mass spectrum to the total signal of OA). Back trajectories of air masses and satellite fire map data were integrated to identify the biomass burning locations and pollutant transport. The western air masses from South Asia with active biomass burning activities transported large amounts of air pollutants, resulting in elevated organic concentrations up to 4-fold higher than those of the background conditions. This study at Mt. Yulong characterizes the tropospheric background aerosols of the Tibetan Plateau during pre-monsoon season and provides clear evidence that the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau was affected by the transport of anthropogenic aerosols from South Asia.

Efficient N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub> uptake and NO<sub>3</sub> oxidation in the outflow of urban Beijing

“…An intercomparison of N 2 O 5 measurements between the CEAS and FIGAERO-ToF-CIMS showed good agreement; another paper on chlorine photochemical activation during this campaign gives detailed intercomparison results of N 2 O 5 measured with the two different techniques (Le Breton et al, 2018). Submicron aerosol composition (PM 1.0 ), including nitrate, sulfate, chloride, ammonium, and organic compounds, were measured using a high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) (De Carlo et al, 2006;Zheng et al, 2017). Particle number and size distribution (PNSD) were measured with a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS, TSI 3936) and an aerosol particle sizer (APS, TSI 3321) (Yue et al, 2009).…”

Chemical characterization and sources of submicron aerosols in the northeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau: insights from high-resolution mass spectrometry

“…S1 in the Supplement), including a high-resolution time-of-flight AMS (HR-ToF-AMS) and a soot particle AMS (SP-AMS) at Nam Co Station in the central QTP (Wang et al, 2017;, a HR-ToF-AMS at Qomolangma Station (QOMS) in the southern QTP (Zhang et al, 2018) and a HR-ToF-AMS at Mt. Yulong in the southeastern QTP (Zheng et al, 2017). In addition to the low PM 1 (NR-PM 1 + BC) mass loadings, the dominant contribution from organic aerosol (OA) (54 %-68 %) was found in the southern and central QTP (Zheng et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018).…”

“…Yulong in the southeastern QTP (Zheng et al, 2017). In addition to the low PM 1 (NR-PM 1 + BC) mass loadings, the dominant contribution from organic aerosol (OA) (54 %-68 %) was found in the southern and central QTP (Zheng et al, 2017;Xu et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2018). OA was composed by oxygenated OA (OOA) and biomass-burningrelated OA (BBOA) components in those high-altitude background sites.…”

Chemical characterization of long-range transport biomass burning emissions to the Himalayas: insights from high-resolution aerosol mass spectrometry

“…However only a few studies have been deployed in remote sites thus far, such as Menyuan (Du et al, 2015), Mt. Yulong (Zheng et al, 2017), and Nam Co (Xu et al, 2018;. In this paper, an Aerodyne high-resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS) was deployed at the Qomolangma Station for Atmospheric and Environmental Observation and Research (QOMS) on the northern slope of the Himalayas to fill the vacancy of real-time mass spectrometer measurement at high elevation sites and to evaluate the significant impacts of BBs from polluted areas in southern Asia on TPH aerosol properties during the pre-monsoon season.…”