References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-9-3841-2009

Secondary organic aerosol from biogenic VOCs over West Africa during AMMA

Capes

¹ Murphy

J. G.

² ⁵ Reeves

C. E.

² McQuaid

J. B.

³ Hamilton

J. F.

⁴ Hopkins

J. R.

⁴ Crosier

¹ Williams

P. I.

¹ Coe

Centre For Atmospheric Science, S. E. A. E. S., University Of Manchester, UK

School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, S. E. E., University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

Department of Chemistry, University of York, York, N. Yorkshire, UK

now at: University of Toronto, Canada

15 06 2009

9 12 3841 3850

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/9/3841/2009/acp-9-3841-2009.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/3841/2009/acp-9-3841-2009.pdf

This paper presents measurements of organic aerosols above subtropical West Africa during the wet season using data from the UK Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements (FAAM) aircraft. Measurements of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) at low altitudes over these subtropical forests were made during the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) field experiment during July and August 2006 mainly above Benin, Nigeria and Niger. Data from an Aerodyne Quadrupole Aerosol Mass Spectrometer show a median organic aerosol loading of 1.07 μg m<sup>−3</sup> over tropical West Africa, which represents the first regionally averaged assessment of organic aerosol mass (OM) in this region during the wet season. This is broadly in agreement with global model predictions based on partitioning schemes, although there are large uncertainties associated with such estimates. In contrast our own calculations based on aerosol yields from isoprene and monoterpenes during chamber studies under represent the OM measured in this region on a comparable scale to the under representations of OM by predictive models in the mid latitudes. As global models rely on similar yield calculations in their global estimates, as our calculations this points to further systematic differences between global model estimates and measurements of SOA, most likely caused by use of incorrect BVOC emission rates. The under predictions of OM by our calculations and those in the mid latitudes employ yields extrapolated from chamber data obtained at higher mass concentrations – more recent yield data for α-pinene obtained at ambient concentrations in a flow through chamber (Shilling et al., 2008) show considerably better agreement with our data.

References 1

Alfarra, M. R.: Insights into Atmospheric Organic Aerosols using an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer, PhD Thesis, Chemical Engineering, UMIST, Manchester, 2004.

Allan, J. D., Jimenez, J. L., Williams, P. I., Alfarra, M. R., Bower, K. N., Jayne, J. T., Coe, H., and Worsnop, D. R.: Quantitative sampling using an Aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer – 1. Techniques of data interpretation and error analysis, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 4090, doi:10.1029/2002JD002358, 2003.

Allan, J. D., Bower, K. N., Coe, H., Boudries, H., Jayne, J. T., Canagaratna, M. R., Millet, D. B., Goldstein, A. H., Quinn, P. K., Weber, R. J., and Worsnop, D. R.: Submicron aerosol composition at Trinidad Head, California, during ITCT 2K2: Its relationship with gas phase volatile organic carbon and assessment of instrument performance, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D23S24, doi:10.1029/2003JD004208, 2004.

Andreae, M. O., Berresheim, H., Bingemer, H., Jacob, D. J., Lewis, B. L., Li, S. M., and Talbot, R. W.: The Atmospheric Sulfur Cycle over the Amazon Basin .2. Wet Season, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 16813–16824, 1990.

Andreae, M. O. and Crutzen, P. J.: Atmospheric aerosols: Biogeochemical sources and role in atmospheric chemistry, Science, 276, 1052–1058, 1997.

Artaxo, P., Martins, J. V., Yamasoe, M. A., Procopio, A. S., Pauliquevis, T. M., Andreae, M. O., Guyon, P., Gatti, L. V., and Leal, A. M. C.: Physical and chemical properties of aerosols in the wet and dry seasons in Rondonia, Amazonia, J. Geophys. Res., 107, 8081, doi:10.1029/2001JD000666, 2002.

Atkinson, R., Baulch, D. L., Cox, R. A., Crowley, J. N., Hampson, R. F., Hynes, R. G., Jenkin, M. E., Rossi, M. J., Troe, J., and IUPAC Subcommittee: Evaluated kinetic and photochemical data for atmospheric chemistry: Volume II – gas phase reactions of organic species, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 3625–4055, 2006.

Canagaratna, M. R., Jayne, J. T., Jimenez, J. L., Allan, J. D., Alfarra, M. R., Zhang, Q., Onasch, T. B., Drewnick, F., Coe, H., Middlebrook, A., Delia, A., Williams, L. R., Trimborn, A. M., Northway, M. J., DeCarlo, P. F., Kolb, C. E., Davidovits, P., and Worsnop, D. R.: Chemical and microphysical characterization of ambient aerosols with the aerodyne aerosol mass spectrometer, Mass Spectrom. Rev., 26, 185–222, 2007.

Chung, S. H. and Seinfeld, J. H.: Global distribution and climate forcing of carbonaceous aerosols, J. Geophys. Res., 107, 4407, doi:10.1029/2001JD001397, 2002.

Claeys, M., Graham, B., Vas, G., Wang, W., Vermeylen, R., Pashynska, V., Cafmeyer, J., Guyon, P., Andreae, M. O., Artaxo, P., and Maenhaut, W.: Formation of secondary organic aerosols through photooxidation of isoprene, Science, 303, 1173–1176, 2004.

Crosier, J., Allan, J. D., Coe, H., Bower, K. N., Formenti, P., and Williams, P. I.: Chemical composition of summertime aerosol in the Po Valley (Italy), northern Adriatic and Black Sea, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 133, 61–75, 2007.

De Gouw, J. A., Middlebrook, A. M., Warneke, C., Goldan, P. D., Kuster, W. C., Roberts, J. M., Fehsenfeld, F. C., Worsnop, D. R., Canagaratna, M. R., Pszenny, A. A. P., Keene, W. C., Marchewka, M., Bertman, S. B., and Bates, T. S.: Budget of organic carbon in a polluted atmosphere: Results from the New England Air Quality Study in 2002, J. Geophys. Res., 110, 305, doi:10.1029/2004JD005623, 2005.

Dommen, J., Metzger, A., Duplissy, J., Kalberer, M., Alfarra, M. R., Gascho, A., Weingartner, E., Prevot, A. S. H., Verheggen, B., and Baltensperger, U.: Laboratory observation of oligomers in the aerosol from isoprene/NO<sub>x</sub> photooxidation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L13805, doi:10.1029/2006GL026523, 2006.

Drewnick, F., Hings, S. S., DeCarlo, P., Jayne, J. T., Gonin, M., Fuhrer, K., Weimer, S., Jimenez, J. L., Demerjian, K. L., Borrmann, S., and Worsnop, D. R.: A new time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometer (TOF-AMS) – Instrument description and first field deployment, Aerosol Science and Technology, 39, 637–658, 2005.

Fenger, J.: Urban air quality, Atmos. Environ., 33, 4877–4900, 1999.

Fowler, D., Coyle, M., Anderson, R., Ashmore, M. R., Bower, J. S., Burgess, R. A., Cape, J. N., Cox, R. A., Derwent, R. G., Dollard, G. J., Grennfelt, P., Harrison, R. M., Hewitt, C. N., Hov, O., Jenkin, M. E., Lee, D. S., Maynard, R. L., Penkett, S. A., Smith, R. I., Stedman, J. R., Weston, K. J., Williams, M. L., and Woods, P. J.: Ozone in the United Kingdom, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, ISBN 1870393309, 1997.

Greenberg, J., Guenther, A., Petron, G., Wiedinmyer, C., Vega, O., Gatti, L. V., Tota, J., and Fisch, G.: Biogenic VOC emissions from forested Amazonian landscapes, Global Change Biol., 10, 651–666, 2004.

Griffin, R. J., Cocker, D. R., Flagan, R. C., and Seinfeld, J. H.: Organic aerosol formation from the oxidation of biogenic hydrocarbons, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 3555–3567, 1999a.

Griffin, R. J., Cocker, D. R., Seinfeld, J. H., and Dabdub, D.: Estimate of global atmospheric organic aerosol from oxidation of biogenic hydrocarbons, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 2721–2724, 1999b.

Guenther, A., Hewitt, C. N., Erickson, D., Fall, R., Geron, C., Graedel, T., Harley, P., Klinger, L., Lerdau, M., Mckay, W. A., Pierce, T., Scholes, B., Steinbrecher, R., Tallamraju, R., Taylor, J., and Zimmerman, P.: A Global-Model of Natural Volatile Organic-Compound Emissions, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 8873–8892, 1995.

Guenther, A., Otter, L., Zimmerman, P., Greenberg, J., Scholes, R., and Scholes, M.: Biogenic hydrocarbon emissions from southern African savannas, J. Geophys. Res., 101, 25859–25865, 1996.

Guenther, A., Geron, C., Pierce, T., Lamb, B., Harley, P., and Fall, R.: Natural emissions of non-methane volatile organic compounds; carbon monoxide, and oxides of nitrogen from North America, Atmos. Environ., 34, 2205–2230, 2000.

Heald, C. L., Jacob, D. J., Park, R. J., Russell, L. M., Huebert, B. J., Seinfeld, J. H., Liao, H., and Weber, R. J.: A large organic aerosol source in the free troposphere missing from current models, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L18809, doi:10.1029/2005GL023831, 2005.

Hopkins, J. R., Lewis, A. C., and Read, K. A.: A two-column method for long-term monitoring of non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and oxygenated volatile organic compounds (o-VOCs), J. Environ. Monitor., 5, 8–13, 2003.

Janicot, S., Thorncroft, C. D., Ali, A., Asencio, N., Berry, G., Bock, O., Bourles, B., Caniaux, G., Chauvin, F., Deme, A., Kergoat, L., Lafore, J.-P., Lavaysse, C., Lebel, T., Marticorena, B., Mounier, F., Nedelec, P., Redelsperger, J.-L., Ravegnani, F., Reeves, C. E., Roca, R., de Rosnay, P., Schlager, H., Sultan, B., Tomasini, M., Ulanovsky, A., and ACMAD forecasters team: Large-scale overview of the summer monsoon over West Africa during the AMMA field experiment in 2006, Ann. Geophys., 26, 2569–2595, 2008.

Jayne, J. T., Leard, D. C., Zhang, X. F., Davidovits, P., Smith, K. A., Kolb, C. E., and Worsnop, D. R.: Development of an aerosol mass spectrometer for size and composition analysis of submicron particles, Aerosol Sci. Technol., 33, 49–70, 2000.

Jimenez, J. L., Jayne, J. T., Shi, Q., Kolb, C. E., Worsnop, D. R., Yourshaw, I., Seinfeld, J. H., Flagan, R. C., Zhang, X. F., Smith, K. A., Morris, J. W., and Davidovits, P.: Ambient aerosol sampling using the Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer, J. Geophys. Res., 108, 8425, doi:10.1029/2001JD001213, 2003.

Johnson, D., Utembe, S. R., Jenkin, M. E., Derwent, R. G., Hayman, G. D., Alfarra, M. R., Coe, H., and McFiggans, G.: Simulating regional scale secondary organic aerosol formation during the TORCH 2003 campaign in the southern UK, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 403–418, 2006.

Kanakidou, M., Seinfeld, J. H., Pandis, S. N., Barnes, I., Dentener, F. J., Facchini, M. C., Van Dingenen, R., Ervens, B., Nenes, A., Nielsen, C. J., Swietlicki, E., Putaud, J. P., Balkanski, Y., Fuzzi, S., Horth, J., Moortgat, G. K., Winterhalter, R., Myhre, C. E. L., Tsigaridis, K., Vignati, E., Stephanou, E. G., and Wilson, J.: Organic aerosol and global climate modelling: a review, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 1053–1123, 2005.

Karl, T., Guenther, A., Yokelson, R. J., Greenberg, J., Potosnak, M., Blake, D. R., and Artaxo, P.: The tropical forest and fire emissions experiment: Emission, chemistry, and transport of biogenic volatile organic compounds in the lower atmosphere over Amazonia, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D18302, doi:10.1029/2007JD008539, 2007.

Kavouras, I. G., Mihalopoulos, N., and Stephanou, E. G.: Formation of atmospheric particles from organic acids produced by forests, Nature, 395, 683–686, 1998.

Kavouras, I. G., Mihalopoulos, N., and Stephanou, E. G.: Formation of biogenic secondary organic aerosol, J. Aerosol Sci., 31, 172–173, 2000.

Kesselmeier, J., Kuhn, U., Wolf, A., Andreae, M. O., Ciccioli, P., Brancaleoni, E., Frattoni, M., Guenther, A., Greenberg, J., Vasconcellos, P. D., de Oliva, T., Tavares, T., and Artaxo, P.: Atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOC) at a remote tropical forest site in central Amazonia, Atmos. Environ., 34, 4063–4072, 2000.

Kroll, J. H., Ng, N. L., Murphy, S. M., Flagan, R. C., and Seinfeld, J. H.: Secondary organic aerosol formation from isoprene photooxidation, Environ. Sci. Technol., 40, 1869–1877, 2006.

Kuhn, U., Rottenberger, S., Biesenthal, T., Wolf, A., Schebeske, G., Ciccioli, P., Brancaleoni, E., Frattoni, M., Tavares, T. M., and Kesselmeier, J.: Isoprene and monoterpene emissions of Amazonian tree species during the wet season: Direct and indirect investigations on controlling environmental functions, J. Geophys. Res., 107, 8071, doi:10.1029/2001JD000978, 2002.

Kulmala, M., Hameri, K., Aalto, P. P., Makela, J. M., Pirjola, L., Nilsson, E. D., Buzorius, G., Rannik, U., Dal Maso, M., Seidl, W., Hoffman, T., Janson, R., Hansson, H. C., Viisanen, Y., Laaksonen, A., and O'Dowd, C. D.: Overview of the international project on biogenic aerosol formation in the boreal forest (BIOFOR), Tellus Series B-Chemical and Physical Meteorology, 53, 324–343, 2001.

Lack, D. A., Tie, X. X., Bofinger, N. D., Wiegand, A. N., and Madronich, S.: Seasonal variability of secondary organic aerosol: A global modeling study, J. Geophys. Res., 109, D03203, doi:10.1029/2003JD003418, 2004.

Lim, Y. B. and Ziemann, P. J.: Products and Mechanism of Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation from Reactions of n-Alkanes with OH Radicals in the Presence of NOx, Environ. Sci. Technol., 39, 9229–9236, doi:10.1021/es051447g, 2005.

Matthew, B. M., Middlebrook, A. M., and Onasch, T. B.: Collection Efficiencies in an Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer as a Function of Particle Phase for Laboratory Generated Aerosols, Aerosol Sci. Technol., 42, 884–898, 2008.

Otter, L. B., Guenther, A., and Greenberg, J.: Seasonal and spatial variations in biogenic hydrocarbon emissions from southern African savannas and woodlands, Atmos. Environ., 36, 4265–4275, 2002.

Parker, D. J., Burton, R. R., Diongue-Niang, A., Ellis, R. J., Felton, M., Taylor, C. M., Thorncroft, C. D., Bessemoulin, P., and Tompkins, A. M.: The diurnal cycle of the West African monsoon circulation, Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc., 131, 2839–2860, 2005a.

Parker, D. J., Thorncroft, C. D., Burton, R. R., and Diongue-Niang, A.: Analysis of the African easterly jet, using aircraft observations from the JET2000 experiment, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 131, 1461–1482, 2005b.

Rappengluck, B., Oyola, P., Olaeta, I., and Fabian, P.: The evolution of photochemical smog in the Metropolitan Area of Santiago de Chile, J. Appl. Meteorol., 39, 275–290, 2000.

Rissler, J., Swietlicki, E., Zhou, J., Roberts, G., Andreae, M. O., Gatti, L. V., and Artaxo, P.: Physical properties of the sub-micrometer aerosol over the Amazon rain forest during the wet-to-dry season transition – comparison of modeled and measured CCN concentrations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 4, 2119–2143, 2004.

Robinson, A. L., Donahue, N. M., Shrivastava, M. K., Weitkamp, E. A., Sage, A. M., Grieshop, A. P., Lane, T. E., Pierce, J. R., and Pandis, S. N.: Rethinking organic aerosols: Semivolatile emissions and photochemical aging, Science, 315, 1259–1262, 2007.

Ruppert, L. and Becker, K. H.: A product study of the OH radical-initiated oxidation of isoprene: formation of C-5-unsaturated diols, Atmos. Environ., 34, 1529–1542, 2000.

Saxton, J. E., Lewis, A. C., Kettlewell, J. H., Ozel, M. Z., Gogus, F., Boni, Y., Korogone, S. O. U., and Serça, D.: Isoprene and monoterpene measurements in a secondary forest in northern Benin, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 7, 4095–4106, 2007.

Shilling, J. E., Chen, Q., King, S. M., Rosenoern, T., Kroll, J. H., Worsnop, D. R., McKinney, K. A., and Martin, S. T.: Particle mass yield in secondary organic aerosol formed by the dark ozonolysis of ?-pinene, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 2073–2088, 2008.

Spivakovsky, C. M., Yevich, R., Logan, J. A., Wofsy, S. C., Mcelroy, M. B., and Prather, M. J.: Tropospheric Oh in a 3-Dimensional Chemical Tracer Model – an Assessment Based on Observations of Ch3ccl3, J. Geophys. Res., 95, 18441–18471, 1990.

Steinbacher, M., Dommen, J., Ordonez, C., Reimann, S., Gruebler, F. C., Staehelin, J., and Prevot, A. S. H.: Volatile organic compounds in the Po Basin. part A: Anthropogenic VOCs, J. Atmos. Chem., 51, 271–291, 2005.

Tsigaridis, K. and Kanakidou, M.: Global modelling of secondary organic aerosol in the troposphere: a sensitivity analysis, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3, 1849–1869, 2003.

Volkamer, R., Jimenez, J. L., San Martini, F., Dzepina, K., Zhang, Q., Salcedo, D., Molina, L. T., Worsnop, D. R., and Molina, M. J.: Secondary organic aerosol formation from anthropogenic air pollution: Rapid and higher than expected, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L17811, doi:10.1029/2006GL026899, 2006.

White, M. L., Russo, R. S., Zhou, Y., Ambrose, J. L., Haase, K., Frinak, E. K., Varner, R. K., Wingenter, O. W., Mao, H., Talbot, R., and Sive, B. C.: Are biogenic emissions a significant source of summertime atmospheric toluene in the rural Northeastern United States?, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 81–92, 2009.

Zhang, Q., Canagaratna, M. R., Jayne, J. T., Worsnop, D. R., and Jimenez, J. L.: Time- and size-resolved chemical composition of submicron particles in Pittsburgh: Implications for aerosol sources and processes, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D07S09, doi:10.1029/2004JD004649, 2005.

Zhang, Q., Jimenez, J. L., Canagaratna, M. R., Allan, J. D., Coe, H., Ulbrich, I., Alfarra, M. R., Takami, A., Middlebrook, A. M., Sun, Y. L., Dzepina, K., Dunlea, E., Docherty, K., DeCarlo, P. F., Salcedo, D., Onasch, T., Jayne, J. T., Miyoshi, T., Shimono, A., Hatakeyama, S., Takegawa, N., Kondo, Y., Schneider, J., Drewnick, F., Borrmann, S.,Weimer, S., Demerjian, K., Williams, P., Bower, K., Bahreini, R., Cottrell, L., Griffin, R. J., Rautiainen, J., Sun, J. Y., Zhang, Y. M., and Worsnop, D. R.: Ubiquity and dominance of oxygenated species in organic aerosols in anthropogenically-influenced Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L13801, doi:10.1029/2007GL029979, 2007.

Zhou, J. C., Swietlicki, E., Hansson, H. C., and Artaxo, P.: Submicrometer aerosol particle size distribution and hygroscopic growth measured in the Amazon rain forest during the wet season, J. Geophys. Res., 107, 8055, doi:10.1029/2000JD000203, 2002.