Quantifying the Impact of Biomass Burning Emissions on Major Inorganic Aerosols and Their Precursors in the U.S.

Souri, Amir H.; Choi, Yunsoo; Jeon, Wonbae; Kochanski, Adam K.; Diao, Lijun; Mandel, Jan; Bhave, Prakash V.; Pan, Shuai

doi:10.1002/2017jd026788

Cited by 35 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Souri et al (2017) showed that biomass burning emitted negligible particulate nitrate but considerable amounts of gaseous precursors (NO x ). Souri et al (2017) showed that biomass burning emitted negligible particulate nitrate but considerable amounts of gaseous precursors (NO x ).…”

Section: Surface Smoke Chemical Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also find that nitrate and sulfate concentrations are increased on smoky days. Souri et al (2017) showed that biomass burning emitted negligible particulate nitrate but considerable amounts of gaseous precursors (NO x ). Their work demonstrated that the formation of aerosol-phase nitrate particles was mainly from the conversion of NO x .…”

Section: Surface Smoke Chemical Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A Decadal Climatology of Chemical, Physical, and Optical Properties of Ambient Smoke in the Western and Southeastern United States

et al. 2020

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Biomass burning is a major source of summertime fine particulate matter in the United States, degrading air quality and affecting human health and climate. Fuels, burn conditions, and fire types vary across the United States, which may impact smoke composition and optical properties. We use the Hazard Mapping System to track smoke plumes for 10 years from 2008 to 2017, focusing on three U.S. regions: Southeast, Pacific West, and Southwest. Combining this geospatial data set with AErosol RObotic NETwork (AERONET) columnar data, and Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network in situ observations, we define "smoke-influenced days" and derive the properties of smoke aerosol for April through September, encompassing the main fire seasons across the United States. We find in the IMPROVE surface measurement that the elemental carbon fraction of smoke in the Southeast is statistically different from and lower than that in the west, consistent with more-smoldering prescribed fires in the southeast. We find in the AERONET columnar observations that the mean single scattering albedo of smoke (at 675 nm) is lower in the two western regions (~0.94) compared to the southeast (~0.96), consistent with the differences in composition and fire types, which implies that the compositional differences at the surface may be representative of the column. Higher relative humidity in the southeast and less dust associated with smoke also appear to contribute to the higher smoke single scattering albedo relative to the west. Our results show that smoke properties vary regionally, with implications for models, data assimilation, and remote-sensing.

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Section: Surface Smoke Chemical Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Surface Smoke Chemical Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Decadal Climatology of Chemical, Physical, and Optical Properties of Ambient Smoke in the Western and Southeastern United States

et al. 2020

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“…As for NH 3 , over 90 % of the NH 3 emissions in terrestrial ecosystems originate from agricultural production, such as livestock breeding and NH 3 -based fertilizer application (Paulot and Jacobs, 2014; Kang et al, 2016;Reis et al, 2009;Bouwman et al, 1997;Heald et al, 2012;Balasubramanian et al, 2015;Huang et al, 2011). In the urban atmosphere, recent studies suggest that nonagricultural activities like wastewater discharge (Zhang et al, 2017), coal burning (Li et al, 2016a), solid waste (Reche et al, 2012), on-road traffic (Suarez-Bertoa et al, 2014), and green spaces (Teng et al, 2017) also contribute to NH 3 emissions. In reactions with H 2 SO 4 and HNO 3 , NH 3 contributes to the formation of NH + 4 salts, which typically make up from 20 % to 80 % of fine particles (PM 2.5 ) in the atmosphere (Seinfeld and Pandis, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Biomass burning (BB) is an important source of N in the atmosphere (Lobert et al, 1990;Souri et al, 2017). During the harvest or hot season of eastern China, agricultural BB frequently occurs and modifies the concentration and composition of aerosols in the atmosphere Zhang and Cao, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isotopic constraints on the atmospheric sources and formation of nitrogenous species in clouds influenced by biomass burning

Chang

Zhang

et al. 2019

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Predicting tropospheric cloud formation and subsequent nutrient deposition relies on understanding the sources and processes affecting aerosol constituents of the atmosphere that are preserved in cloud water. However, this challenge is difficult to address quantitatively based on the sole use of bulk chemical properties. Nitrogenous aerosols, mainly ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3-), play a particularly important role in tropospheric cloud formation. While dry and wet (mainly rainfall) deposition of NH4+ and NO3- are regularly assessed, cloud water deposition is often underappreciated. Here we collected cloud water samples at the summit of Mt. Tai (1545 m above sea level) in eastern China during a long-lasting biomass burning (BB) event and simultaneously measured for the first time the isotopic compositions (mean ±1σ) of cloud water nitrogen species (δ15N-NH4+ = −6.53 ‰ ± 4.96 ‰, δ15N-NO3- = −2.35 ‰ ± 2.00 ‰, δ18O-NO3- = 57.80 ‰ ± 4.23 ‰), allowing insights into their sources and potential transformation mechanism within the clouds. Large contributions of BB to the cloud water NH4+ (32.9 % ± 4.6 %) and NO3- (28.2 % ± 2.7 %) inventories were confirmed through a Bayesian isotopic mixing model, coupled with our newly developed computational quantum chemistry module. Despite an overall reduction in total anthropogenic NOx emission due to effective emission control actions and stricter emission standards for vehicles, the observed cloud δ15N-NO3- values suggest that NOx emissions from transportation may have exceeded emissions from coal combustion. δ18O-NO3- values imply that the reaction of OH with NO2 is the dominant pathway of NO3- formation (57 % ± 11 %), yet the contribution of heterogeneous hydrolysis of dinitrogen pentoxide was almost as important (43 % ± 11 %). Although the limited sample set used here results in a relatively large uncertainty with regards to the origin of cloud-associated nitrogen deposition, the high concentrations of inorganic nitrogen imply that clouds represent an important source of nitrogen, especially for nitrogen-limited ecosystems in remote areas. Further simultaneous and long-term sampling of aerosol, rainfall, and cloud water is vital for understanding the anthropogenic influence on nitrogen deposition in the study region.

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“…Biomass burning (BB) is an important source of N in the atmosphere (Lobert et al, 1990;Souri et al, 2017). During the harvest/hot season of eastern China, agricultural BB frequently occurs and modifies the concentration and composition of aerosols in the atmosphere (Chen et al,70 2017; Zhang and Cao, 2015).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Isotopic Constraints on the Atmospheric Sources and Formation of Nitrogenous Species in Biomass-Burning-Influenced Clouds

Chang

Zhang

et al. 2018

Preprint

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The interpretation of tropospheric cloud formation rests on understanding the sources and processes affecting aerosol constituents of the atmosphere that are preserved in cloudwater. 25 However, this challenge is difficult to be quantitatively addressed based on the sole use of bulk chemical properties. Nitrogenous aerosols, mainly ammonium (NH4 + ) and nitrate (NO3 -), play an important role in tropospheric cloud formation. Here we collected cloudwater samples at the summit of Mt. Tai (1545 m above sea level) in Eastern China during a long-lasting biomass burning (BB) event, and measured for the first time the isotopic compositions (mean ± 1σ) of 30 cloudwater nitrogen species (δ 15 N-NH4 + = -6.53 ± 4.96‰, δ 15 N-NO3 -= -2.35 ± 2.00‰, δ 18 O-NO3 -= 57.80 ± 4.23‰), allowing insights into their sources and potential transformation mechanism within the clouds. Large contributions of BB to the cloudwater NH4 + (32.9 ± 4.6%) and NO3 -(28.2 ± 2.7%) inventories were confirmed through a Bayesian isotopic mixing model, coupled with our newly-developed computational quantum chemistry module. Despite an overall reduction in total 35 anthropogenic NOx emission due to effective emission control actions and stricter emission standards for vehicles, the observed cloud δ 15 N-NO3values suggest that NOx emissions from transportation may have exceeded emissions from coal combustion. δ 18 O-NO3values imply that the reaction of OH with NO2 is the dominant pathway of NO3formation (57 ± 11%), yet the Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.

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Quantifying the Impact of Biomass Burning Emissions on Major Inorganic Aerosols and Their Precursors in the U.S.

Cited by 35 publications

References 71 publications

A Decadal Climatology of Chemical, Physical, and Optical Properties of Ambient Smoke in the Western and Southeastern United States

A Decadal Climatology of Chemical, Physical, and Optical Properties of Ambient Smoke in the Western and Southeastern United States

Isotopic constraints on the atmospheric sources and formation of nitrogenous species in clouds influenced by biomass burning

Isotopic Constraints on the Atmospheric Sources and Formation of Nitrogenous Species in Biomass-Burning-Influenced Clouds

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