ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-12-6067-2012 Contribution of organic carbon to wood smoke particulate matter absorption of solar radiation Kirchstetter T. W. 1 2 Thatcher T. L. 3 Environmental Energy Technologies Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, University of California, Berkeley, USA Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, USA 16 07 2012 12 14 6067 6072 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/6067/2012/acp-12-6067-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/6067/2012/acp-12-6067-2012.pdf

A spectroscopic analysis of 115 wintertime particulate matter samples collected in rural California shows that wood smoke absorbs solar radiation with a strong spectral selectivity. This is consistent with prior work that has demonstrated that organic carbon (OC), in addition to black carbon (BC), appreciably absorbs solar radiation in the visible and ultraviolet spectral regions. We apportion light absorption to OC and BC and find that the absorption Ångström exponent of the light-absorbing OC in these samples ranges from 3.0 to 7.4 and averages 5.0. Further, we calculate that OC would account for 14% and BC would account for 86% of solar radiation absorbed by the wood smoke in the atmosphere (integrated over the solar spectrum from 300 to 2500 nm). OC would contribute 49% of the wood smoke particulate matter absorption of ultraviolet solar radiation at wavelengths below 400 nm and, therefore, may affect tropospheric photochemistry. These results illustrate that BC is the dominant light-absorbing particulate matter species in atmospheres burdened with residential wood smoke and OC absorption is secondary but not insignificant. Further, these results add to the growing body of evidence that light-absorbing OC is ubiquitous in atmospheres influenced by biomass burning and may be important to include when considering particulate matter effects on climate.

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