Black carbon (BC) exerts profound impacts on air quality and climate because of its high absorption cross-section over a broad range of electromagnetic spectra, but the current results on absorption enhancement of BC particles during atmospheric aging remain conflicting. Here, we quantified the aging and variation in the optical properties of BC particles under ambient conditions in Beijing, China, and Houston, United States, using a novel environmental chamber approach. BC aging exhibits two distinct stages, i.e., initial transformation from a fractal to spherical morphology with little absorption variation and subsequent growth of fully compact particles with a large absorption enhancement. The timescales to achieve complete morphology modification and an absorption amplification factor of 2.4 for BC particles are estimated to be 2.3 h and 4.6 h, respectively, in Beijing, compared with 9 h and 18 h, respectively, in Houston. Our findings indicate that BC under polluted urban environments could play an essential role in pollution development and contribute importantly to large positive radiative forcing. The variation in direct radiative forcing is dependent on the rate and timescale of BC aging, with a clear distinction between urban cities in developed and developing countries, i.e., a higher climatic impact in more polluted environments. We suggest that mediation in BC emissions achieves a cobenefit in simultaneously controlling air pollution and protecting climate, especially for developing countries.black carbon | absorption | air quality | radiative forcing | climate B lack carbon (BC) particles, produced from incomplete fossil fuel combustion and biomass burning, are ubiquitous in the atmosphere and have profound impacts on air quality and climate (1-4). As a key short-lived climate forcer, the magnitude of BC direct radiative forcing (DRF) is dependent on the mixing state, i.e., whether particles are externally or internally mixed with other aerosol types (5, 6), and atmospheric aging by coating with secondary aerosol constituents (such as organics and sulfate) enhances the mass absorption cross-section (MAC) (5-9). Previous laboratory studies conducted under controlled experimental conditions yielded a broad range of MAC enhancements from 1.05 to 3.50, varying with the diameter, morphology, and coating of BC particles (7-15). On the other hand, a field measurement indicated a negligible absorption enhancement of ambient BC particles under a variable mixing state (16). In addition, BC aging and absorption enhancement also strongly impact visibility and atmospheric stability.Few direct measurements have been conducted to capture aging and quantify the related absorption variation of BC particles under ambient conditions. In particular, atmospheric measurements at fixed sites are affected by transport, local emissions, and chemistry, and quantification of the evolution in the BC properties (such as morphology, mixing state, and absorption and scattering coefficients) during aging involves complex decoupli...

Atmospheric new particle formation (NPF) is an important global phenomenon that is nevertheless sensitive to ambient conditions. According to both observation and theoretical arguments, NPF usually requires a relatively high sulfuric acid (HSO) concentration to promote the formation of new particles and a low preexisting aerosol loading to minimize the sink of new particles. We investigated NPF in Shanghai and were able to observe both precursor vapors (HSO) and initial clusters at a molecular level in a megacity. High NPF rates were observed to coincide with several familiar markers suggestive of HSO-dimethylamine (DMA)-water (HO) nucleation, including sulfuric acid dimers and HSO-DMA clusters. In a cluster kinetics simulation, the observed concentration of sulfuric acid was high enough to explain the particle growth to ~3 nanometers under the very high condensation sink, whereas the subsequent higher growth rate beyond this size is believed to result from the added contribution of condensing organic species. These findings will help in understanding urban NPF and its air quality and climate effects, as well as in formulating policies to mitigate secondary particle formation in China.

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The molecular processes leading to formation of nanoparticles of blue haze over forested areas are highly complex and not fully understood. We show that the interaction between biogenic organic acids and sulfuric acid enhances nucleation and initial growth of those nanoparticles. With one cis-pinonic acid and three to five sulfuric acid molecules in the critical nucleus, the hydrophobic organic acid part enhances the stability and growth on the hydrophilic sulfuric acid counterpart. Dimers or heterodimers of biogenic organic acids alone are unfavorable for new particle formation and growth because of their hydrophobicity. Condensation of lowvolatility organic acids is hindered on nano-sized particles, whereas ammonia contributes negligibly to particle growth in the size range of 3-30 nm. The results suggest that initial growth from the critical nucleus to the detectable size of 2-3 nm most likely occurs by condensation of sulfuric acid and water, implying that anthropogenic sulfur emissions (mainly from power plants) strongly influence formation of terrestrial biogenic particles and exert larger direct and indirect climate forcing than previously recognized.aerosol ͉ biogenic ͉ climate ͉ nucleation ͉ forest

Light absorption by carbon soot increases when the particles are internally mixed with nonabsorbing materials, leading to increased radiative forcing, but the magnitude of this enhancement is a subject of great uncertainty. We have performed laboratory experiments of the optical properties of fresh and internally mixed carbon soot aerosols with a known particle size, morphology, and the mixing state. Flame-generated soot aerosol is size-selected with a double-differential mobility analyzer (DMA) setup to eliminate multiply charged particle modes and then exposed to gaseous sulfuric acid (10(9)-10(10) molecule cm(-3)) and water vapor (5-80% relative humidity, RH). Light extinction and scattering by fresh and internally mixed soot aerosol are measured at 532 nm wavelength using a cavity ring-down spectrometer and an integrating nephelometer, respectively, and the absorption is derived as the difference between extinction and scattering. The optical properties of fresh soot are independent of RH, whereas soot internally mixed with sulfuric acid exhibits significant enhancement in light absorption and scattering, increasing with the mass fraction of sulfuric acid coating and relative humidity. For soot particles with an initial mobility diameter of 320 nm and a 40% H(2)SO(4) mass coating fraction, absorption and scattering are increased by 1.4- and 13-fold at 80% RH, respectively. Also, the single scattering albedo of soot aerosol increases from 0.1 to 0.5 after coating and humidification. Additional measurements with soot particles that are first coated with sulfuric acid and then heated to remove the coating show that both scattering and absorption are enhanced by irreversible restructuring of soot aggregates to more compact globules. Depending on the initial size and density of soot aggregates, restructuring acts to increase or decrease the absorption cross-section, but the combination of restructuring and encapsulation always results in an increased absorption for internally mixed soot. Mass absorption cross-sections (MAC) for fresh soot aggregates are size dependent, increasing from 6.7 +/- 0.7 m(2) g(-1) for 155 nm particles to 8.7 +/- 0.1 m(2) g(-1) for 320 nm particles. After exposure of soot to sulfuric acid, MAC is as high as 12.6 m(2) g(-1) for 320 nm particles at 80% RH. Our results imply that optical properties of soot are significantly altered within its atmospheric lifetime, leading to greater impact on visibility, local air quality, and radiative climate forcing.

Abstract. Submicron aerosol was analyzed during the MILAGRO field campaign in March 2006 at the T0 urban supersite in Mexico City with a High-Resolution Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and complementary instrumentation. Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) of high resolution AMS spectra identified a biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA) component, which includes several large plumes that appear to be from forest fires within the region. Here, we show that the AMS BBOA concentration at T0 correlates with fire counts in the vicinity of Mexico City and that most of the BBOA variability is captured when the FLEXPART model is used for the dispersion of fire emissions as estimated from satellite fire counts. The resulting FLEXPART fire impact factor (FIF) correlates well with the observed BBOA, acetonitrile (CH3CN), levoglucosan, and potassium, indicating that wildfires in the region surrounding Mexico City are the dominant source of BBOA at T0 during MILAGRO. The impact of distant BB sources such as the Yucatan is small during this period. All fire tracers are correlated, with BBOA and levoglucosan showing little background, acetonitrile having a well-known tropospheric background of ~100–150 pptv, and PM2.5 potassium having a background of ~160 ng m−3 (two-thirds of its average concentration), which does not appear to be related to BB sources. We define two high fire periods based on satellite fire counts and FLEXPART-predicted FIFs. We then compare these periods with a low fire period when the impact of regional fires is about a factor of 5 smaller. Fire tracers are very elevated in the high fire periods whereas tracers of urban pollution do not change between these periods. Dust is also elevated during the high BB period but this appears to be coincidental due to the drier conditions and not driven by direct dust emission from the fires. The AMS oxygenated organic aerosol (OA) factor (OOA, mostly secondary OA or SOA) does not show an increase during the fire periods or a correlation with fire counts, FLEXPART-predicted FIFs or fire tracers, indicating that it is dominated by urban and/or regional sources and not by the fires near the MCMA. A new 14C aerosol dataset is presented. Both this new and a previously published dataset of 14C analysis suggest a similar BBOA contribution as the AMS and chemical mass balance (CMB), resulting in 13% higher non-fossil carbon during the high vs. low regional fire periods. The new dataset has ~15% more fossil carbon on average than the previously published one, and possible reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. During the low regional fire period, 38% of organic carbon (OC) and 28% total carbon (TC) are from non-fossil sources, suggesting the importance of urban and regional non-fossil carbon sources other than the fires, such as food cooking and regional biogenic SOA. The ambient BBOA/ΔCH3CN ratio is much higher in the afternoon when the wildfires are most intense than during the rest of the day. Also, there are large differences in the contributions of the different OA components to the surface concentrations vs. the integrated column amounts. Both facts may explain some apparent disagreements between BB impacts estimated from afternoon aircraft flights vs. those from 24-h ground measurements. We show that by properly accounting for the non-BB sources of K, all of the BB PM estimates from MILAGRO can be reconciled. Overall, the fires from the region near the MCMA are estimated to contribute 15–23% of the OA and 7–9% of the fine PM at T0 during MILAGRO, and 2–3% of the fine PM as an annual average. The 2006 MCMA emissions inventory contains a substantially lower impact of the forest fire emissions, although a fraction of these emissions occur just outside of the MCMA inventory area.

Abstract. Simultaneous measurements of gaseous sulfuric acid and particle number size distributions were performed to investigate aerosol nucleation and growth during CAREBeijing-2008. The analysis of the measured aerosols and sulfuric acid with an aerosol dynamic model shows the dominant role of sulfuric acid in new particle formation (NPF) process but also in the subsequent growth in Beijing. Based on the data of twelve NPF events, the average formation rates (2-13 cm −3 s −1 ) show a linear correlation with the sulfuric acid concentrations (R 2 =0.85). Coagulation seems to play a significant role in reducing the number concentration of nucleation mode particles with the ratio of the coagulation loss to formation rate being 0.41±0.16. The apparent growth rates vary from 3 to 11 nm h −1 . Condensation of sulfuric acid and its subsequent neutralization by ammonia and coagulation contribute to the apparent particle growth on average 45±18% and 34±17%, respectively. The 30% higher concentration of sulfate than organic compounds in particles during the seven sulfur-rich NPF events but 20% lower concentration of sulfate during the five sulfur-poor type suggest that organic compounds are an important contributor to the growth of the freshly nucleated particles, especially during the sulfur-poor cases.

Measurements of hydroxyl (OH) and hydroperoxy (HO 2 ) radicals were made during the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) field campaign as part of the MILAGRO (Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations) project during March 2006. These measurements provide a unique opportunity to test current models of atmospheric RO x (OH + HO 2 + RO 2 ) photochemistry under polluted conditions. A zero-dimensional box model based on the Regional Atmospheric Chemical Mechanism (RACM) was constrained by 10-min averages of 24 J -values and the concentrations of 97 chemical species. Several issues related to the RO x chemistry under polluted conditions Correspondence to: S. Dusanter (sdusante@indiana.edu) are highlighted in this study: (i) Measured concentrations of both OH and HO 2 were underpredicted during morning hours on a median campaign basis, suggesting a significant source of radicals is missing from current atmospheric models under polluted conditions, consistent with previous urban field campaigns. (ii) The model-predicted HO 2 /OH ratios underestimate the measurements for NO mixing ratios higher than 5 ppb, also consistent with previous urban field campaigns. This suggests that under high NO x conditions, the HO 2 to OH propagation rate may be overestimated by the model or a process converting OH into HO 2 may be missing from the chemical mechanism. On a daily basis (08:40 a.m.-06:40 p.m.), an analysis of the radical budget indicates that HONO photolysis, HCHO photolysis, O 3 -alkene reactions and dicarbonyls photolysis are the main radical sources. O 3 Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union. 6656 S. Dusanter et al.: HO x model/measurement comparison for MCMA-2006photolysis contributes to less than 6% of the total radical production.