ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-12-7285-2012 Cloud condensation nuclei activity of fresh primary and aged biomass burning aerosol Engelhart G. J. 1 Hennigan C. J. 1 Miracolo M. A. 1 Robinson A. L. 1 Pandis S. N. 1 2 3 Center for Atmospheric Particle Studies, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania, 15217, Pittsburgh, USA Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patra, Greece Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Foundation of Research & Technology, Patra, Greece 13 08 2012 12 15 7285 7293 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/12/7285/2012/acp-12-7285-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/7285/2012/acp-12-7285-2012.pdf

We quantify the hygroscopic properties of particles freshly emitted from biomass burning and after several hours of photochemical aging in a smog chamber. Values of the hygroscopicity parameter, κ, were calculated from cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) measurements of emissions from combustion of 12 biomass fuels commonly burned in North American wildfires. Prior to photochemical aging, the κ of the fresh primary aerosol varied widely, between 0.06 (weakly hygroscopic) and 0.6 (highly hygroscopic). The hygroscopicity of the primary aerosol was positively correlated with the inorganic mass fraction of the particles. Photochemical processing reduced the range of κ values to between 0.08 and 0.3. The changes in κ were driven by the photochemical production of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). SOA also contributed to growth of particles formed during nucleation events. Analysis of the nucleation mode particles enabled the first direct quantification of the hygroscopicity parameter κ for biomass burning SOA, which was on average 0.11, similar to values observed for biogenic SOA. Although initial CCN activity of biomass burning aerosol emissions are highly variable, after a few hours of photochemical processing κ converges to a value of 0.2 ± 0.1. Therefore, photochemical aging reduces the variability of biomass burning CCN κ, which should simplify analysis of the potential effects of biomass burning aerosol on climate.

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