Mobile Near-Field Measurements of Biomass Burning Volatile Organic Compounds: Emission Ratios and Factor Analysis

Majluf, Francesca; Krechmer, Jordan E.; Knighton, W. B.; Dyroff, Christoph; Lambe, Andrew T.; Fortner, Edward C.; Yacovitch, Tara I.; Roscioli, Joseph R.; Herndon, S. C.; Worsnop, Douglas R.; Canagaratna, Manjula R.

doi:10.1021/acs.estlett.2c00194

Cited by 19 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Ground measurements from the AML enabled an assessment of VOC emissions from near‐field sampling of seven western wildfires (Majluf et al., 2022). Emissions ratios for 240 mass spectral signals were calculated and evaluated using PMF to identify two factors relating to high and low temperature pyrolysis.…”

Section: Emerging Results From Firex‐aqmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX‐AQ)

et al. 2023

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The NOAA/NASA Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) experiment was a multi-agency, inter-disciplinary research effort to: (a) obtain detailed measurements of trace gas and aerosol emissions from wildfires and prescribed fires using aircraft, satellites and ground-based instruments, (b) make extensive suborbital remote sensing measurements of fire dynamics, (c) assess local, regional, and global modeling of fires, and (d) strengthen connections to observables on the ground such as fuels and fuel consumption and satellite products such as burned area and fire radiative power. From Boise, ID western wildfires were studied with the NASA DC-8 and two NOAA Twin Otter aircraft. The high-altitude NASA ER-2 was deployed from Palmdale, CA to observe some of these fires in conjunction with satellite overpasses and the other aircraft. Further research was conducted on three mobile laboratories and ground sites, and 17 different modeling forecast and analyses products for fire, fuels and air quality and climate implications. From Salina, KS the DC-8 investigated 87 smaller fires in the Southeast with remote and in-situ data collection. Sampling by all platforms was designed to measure emissions of trace gases and aerosols with multiple transects to capture the chemical transformation of these emissions and perform remote sensing observations of fire and smoke plumes under day and night conditions. The emissions were linked to fuels WARNEKE ET AL.

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Section: Emerging Results From Firex‐aqmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, the reactivity with daytime and nighttime oxidants of several BB species measured with the Vocus PTR was investigated. Details and discussion of all of these Vocus PTR observations can be found in Majluf et al (2022).…”

Section: Aerodyne Mobile Laboratorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX‐AQ)

et al. 2023

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“…It should be noted that the short-lived and secondary compounds in the freshest plumes (e.g., transect #01 in Figure a) already have large contributions of the aging factor (∼60%), while fresh plumes and long-lived species can be well described with only the high- and low-temperature factors as shown in Figure a. This difference is partly explained by rapid photochemistry in biomass burning plumes, which can quickly alter smoke in the minutes to hour timeframe before the DC-8 sampled the fire plumes. , It should be mentioned that PMF was not able to separate out an aging factor for the very freshest plumes, such as observed in the FireLab or from fresh near-field VOC emissions collected by ground-site sampling during the FIREX-AQ project . Another reason is that the small oxygenated VOCs are also primary emissions that are significant in the high- and low-temperature factors and PMF assigns some of them to the aging factor as well in the fresh plumes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Fuel-Type Independent Parameterization of Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Western US Wildfires

Sekimoto,

Coggon,

Gkatzelis

et al. 2023

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from biomass burning impact air quality and climate. Laboratory studies have shown that the variability in VOC speciation is largely driven by changes in combustion conditions and is only modestly impacted by fuel type. Here, we report that emissions of VOCs measured in ambient smoke emitted from western US wildfires can be parameterized by high-and low-temperature pyrolysis VOC profiles and are consistent with previous observations from laboratory simulated fires. This is demonstrated using positive matrix factorization (PMF) constrained by high-and lowtemperature factors using VOC measurements obtained with a proton-transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) on board the NASA DC-8 during the FIREX-AQ (Fire Influence on Regional and Global Environments and Air Quality) project in 2019. A linear combination of high-and low-temperature factors described more than 70% of the variability of VOC emissions of long-lived VOCs in all sampled wildfire plumes. An additional factor attributable to atmospheric aging was required to parameterize short-lived and secondarily produced VOCs. The relative contribution of the PMF-derived high-temperature factor for a given fire plume was strongly correlated with the fire radiative power (FRP) at the estimated time of emission detected by satellite measurements. By combining the FRP with the fraction of the high-temperature PMF factor, the emission ratios (ERs) of VOCs to carbon monoxide (CO) in fresh wildfires were estimated and agree well with measured ERs (r 2 = 0.80−0.93). KEYWORDS: wildfire, volatile organic compound (VOC), proton-transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PTR-ToF-MS), high-temperature pyrolysis, low-temperature pyrolysis, fire radiative power (FRP), FIREX-AQ, positive matrix factorization (PMF)

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“…More information about the fires and operational details of the AML during this campaign can be found in Sumlin et al (2021). The entire sampling route of the AML for this campaign can be found in Majluf et al (2022). We also collected PM 2.5 samples at a regional background site at the McCall Activity Barn (longitude −116.115 • , latitude 44.872 • , shown in Fig.…”

Section: Fires Sampling Routesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An Aerodyne Vocus PTR-ToF-MS (Krechmer et al, 2018) was also deployed on the AML for the for VOC measurements. Results from Vocus measurement, such as emission ratios of VOCs and mass spectral signatures of low-and high-temperature pyrolysis products have been documented in Majluf et al (2022). Concentrations of furan (C 4 H 4 O) and acetonitrile (CH 3 CN) measured by Vocus were used in this study, as markers of short-lived BB VOC and stable BB VOC, which reflect the ages of BB plumes.…”

Section: Additional Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emissions of organic compounds from western US wildfires and their near-fire transformations

et al. 2022

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Abstract. The size and frequency of wildfires in the western United States have been increasing, and this trend is projected to continue, with increasing adverse consequences for human health. Gas- and particle-phase organic compounds are the main components of wildfire emissions. Some of the directly emitted compounds are hazardous air pollutants, while others can react with oxidants to form secondary air pollutants such as ozone and secondary organic aerosol (SOA). Further, compounds emitted in the particle phase can volatize during smoke transport and can then serve as precursors for SOA. The extent of pollutant formation from wildfire emissions is dependent in part on the speciation of organic compounds. The most detailed speciation of organic compounds has been achieved in laboratory studies, though recent field campaigns are leading to an increase in such measurements in the field. In this study, we identified and quantified hundreds of gas- and particle-phase organic compounds emitted from conifer-dominated wildfires in the western US, using two two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC × GC ToF-MS) instruments. Observed emission factors (EFs) and emission ratios are reported for four wildfires. As has been demonstrated previously, modified combustion efficiency (MCE) was a good predictor of particle-phase EFs (e.g., R2=0.78 and 0.84 for sugars and terpenoids, respectively), except for elemental carbon. Higher emissions of diterpenoids, resin acids, and monoterpenes were observed in the field relative to laboratory studies, likely due to distillation from unburned heated vegetation, which may be underrepresented in laboratory studies. These diterpenoids and resin acids accounted for up to 45 % of total quantified organic aerosol, higher than the contribution from sugar and sugar derivatives. The low volatility of resin acids makes them ideal markers for conifer fire smoke. The speciated measurements also show that evaporation of semi-volatile organic compounds took place in smoke plumes, which suggests that the evaporated primary organic aerosol can be a precursor of SOAs in wildfire smoke plumes.

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Mobile Near-Field Measurements of Biomass Burning Volatile Organic Compounds: Emission Ratios and Factor Analysis

Cited by 19 publications

References 39 publications

Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX‐AQ)

Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX‐AQ)

Fuel-Type Independent Parameterization of Volatile Organic Compound Emissions from Western US Wildfires

Emissions of organic compounds from western US wildfires and their near-fire transformations

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