Source Contributions to Wintertime Elemental and Organic Carbon in the Western Arctic Based on Radiocarbon and Tracer Apportionment

Abstract

To quantify the contributions of fossil and biomass sources to the wintertime Arctic aerosol burden source apportionment is reported for elemental (EC) and organic carbon (OC) fractions of six PM10 samples collected during a wintertime (2012-2013) campaign in Barrow, AK. Radiocarbon apportionment of EC indicates that fossil sources contribute an average of 68 ± 9% (0.01-0.07 μg m(-3)) in midwinter decreasing to 49 ± 6% (0.02 μg m(-3)) in late winter. The mean contribution of fossil sources to OC for the campaign was stable at 38 ± 8% (0.04-0.32 μg m(-3)). Samples were also analyzed for organic tracers, including levoglucosan, for use in a chemical mass balance (CMB) source apportionment model. The CMB model was able to apportion 24-53% and 99% of the OC and EC burdens, respectively, during the campaign, with fossil OC contributions ranging from 25 to 74% (0.02-0.09 μg m(-3)) and fossil EC contributions ranging from 73 to 94% (0.03-0.07 μg m(-3)). Back trajectories identified two major wintertime source regions to Barrow: the Russian and North American Arctic. Atmospheric lifetimes of levoglucosan, ranging from 50 to 320 h, revealed variability in wintertime atmospheric processing of this biomass burning tracer. This study allows for unambiguous apportionment of EC to fossil fuel and biomass combustion sources and intercomparison with CMB modeling.

Sources of non-fossil-fuel emissions in carbonaceous aerosols during early winter in Chinese cities

“…In this study, about half of the EC was derived from BB in the 10 urban cities (average 46 ± 11 %; range: 24-71 %), which represents a slightly higher proportion than that for the same cities in winter and spring but is similar to previous studies performed in cities in other countries (Szidat et al, 2009;Bernardoni et al, 2013). However, this result differs from those obtained in remote regions dominated by BB (Barrett et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2014). Compared with other studies in China, the measured biomass burning contributions to EC in Beijing are relatively higher than those in the same city during winter (Zhang et al, , 2015b.…”

Composition and Sources of Particulate Matter Measured near Houston, TX: Anthropogenic-Biogenic Interactions

“…The contemporary end member used for this study was 67.5 , an average of the 2010 biomass burning end member (∆ 14 C = 107.5 ) corresponding to wood smoke and the 2010 biogenic end member (∆ 14 C = 28 ) corresponding to primary and secondary biogenic emissions, meat cooking and combustion of grass, prunings and agricultural waste [42,43]. The fossil fuel end member waś 1000 [44].…”

Organic functional groups in the submicron aerosol at 82.5° N, 62.5° W from 2012 to 2014

“…Marine sources further contribute to OM in spring and summer through emissions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs; e.g., isoprene and terpenes) that are oxidized in the atmosphere (Fu et al, 2009a), oxygenated VOCs (OVOCs; Mungall et al, 2017) and trimethylamines (Köllner et al, 2017) as well as from direct emissions of sea spray Frossard et al, 2011Frossard et al, , 2014. During winter and early spring, much of the OM may come from Eurasian fossil fuel sources (e.g., Behrenfeldt et al, 2008;Nguyen et al, 2013;Barrett et al, 2015), and it is mixed with sulfates and nitrates (Weinbruch et al, 2012). Organic acids and organosulfates measured in samples from Station Nord suggest that OM during October to April is from distant anthropogenic sources, whereas the year-round presence of organic sulfates in samples collected at Mount Zeppelin indicates contributions from local sources as well as long-range transport (Hansen et al, 2014).…”