Regional Influence of Aerosol Emissions from Wildfires Driven by Combustion Efficiency: Insights from the BBOP Campaign

Sonya Collier; Shan Zhou; Timothy B. Onasch; Daniel A. Jaffe; Lawrence Kleinman; Arthur J. Sedlacek; Nicole L. Briggs; Jonathan Hee; Edward Fortner; John E. Shilling; Douglas Worsnop; Robert J. Yokelson; Caroline Parworth; Xinlei Ge; Jianzhong Xu; Zachary Butterfield; Duli Chand; Manvendra K. Dubey; Mikhail S. Pekour; Stephen Springston; Qi Zhang

doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b01617

Regional Influence of Aerosol Emissions from Wildfires Driven by Combustion Efficiency: Insights from the BBOP Campaign

Sonya Collier
, Shan Zhou
, Timothy B. Onasch
, Daniel A. Jaffe
, Lawrence Kleinman
, Arthur J. Sedlacek
, Nicole L. Briggs
, Jonathan Hee
, Edward Fortner
, John E. Shilling
, Douglas Worsnop
, Robert J. Yokelson
, Caroline Parworth
, Xinlei Ge
, Jianzhong Xu
, Zachary Butterfield
, Duli Chand
, Manvendra K. Dubey
, Mikhail S. Pekour
, Stephen Springston

Qi Zhang

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

101 Scopus citations

Abstract

Wildfires are important contributors to atmospheric aerosols and a large source of emissions that impact regional air quality and global climate. In this study, the regional and nearfield influences of wildfire emissions on ambient aerosol concentration and chemical properties in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States were studied using real-time measurements from a fixed ground site located in Central Oregon at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory (∼2700 m a.s.l.) as well as near their sources using an aircraft. The regional characteristics of biomass burning aerosols were found to depend strongly on the modified combustion efficiency (MCE), an index of the combustion processes of a fire. Organic aerosol emissions had negative correlations with MCE, whereas the oxidation state of organic aerosol increased with MCE and plume aging. The relationships between the aerosol properties and MCE were consistent between fresh emissions (∼1 h old) and emissions sampled after atmospheric transport (6-45 h), suggesting that biomass burning organic aerosol concentration and chemical properties were strongly influenced by combustion processes at the source and conserved to a significant extent during regional transport. These results suggest that MCE can be a useful metric for describing aerosol properties of wildfire emissions and their impacts on regional air quality and global climate.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	8613-8622
Number of pages	10
Journal	Environmental Science and Technology
Volume	50
Issue number	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b01617
State	Published - Aug 16 2016

Funding

This work was funded by US Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program and the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) program (Grants DESC0014620, DE-SC0007178, and DE-SC0014287) and used data from the ARM Climate Research Facility, a DOE Office of Science User Facility. MBO receives funding from the National Science Foundation (Grant NSF-1447832 to DJ). R.Y. was supported by NASA ACCDAM award NNX14AP45G. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is operated for DOE by Battelle Memorial Institute under contract DE-AC05- 76RL01830. MKD thanks ASR grant F265 for support to LANL.

Funders	Funder number
1447832, NSF-1447832
DE-SC0007178, DE-SC0014287, DESC0014620
National Aeronautics and Space Administration	NNX14AP45G
Battelle	DE-AC05- 76RL01830, F265

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 13 Climate Action

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10.1021/acs.est.6b01617

Cite this

Collier, S., Zhou, S., Onasch, T. B., Jaffe, D. A., Kleinman, L., Sedlacek, A. J., Briggs, N. L., Hee, J., Fortner, E., Shilling, J. E., Worsnop, D., Yokelson, R. J., Parworth, C., Ge, X., Xu, J., Butterfield, Z., Chand, D., Dubey, M. K., Pekour, M. S., ... Zhang, Q. (2016). Regional Influence of Aerosol Emissions from Wildfires Driven by Combustion Efficiency: Insights from the BBOP Campaign. Environmental Science and Technology, 50(16), 8613-8622. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b01617

@article{5ee30d7544664badb4a417430843f8c4,

title = "Regional Influence of Aerosol Emissions from Wildfires Driven by Combustion Efficiency: Insights from the BBOP Campaign",

abstract = "Wildfires are important contributors to atmospheric aerosols and a large source of emissions that impact regional air quality and global climate. In this study, the regional and nearfield influences of wildfire emissions on ambient aerosol concentration and chemical properties in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States were studied using real-time measurements from a fixed ground site located in Central Oregon at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory (∼2700 m a.s.l.) as well as near their sources using an aircraft. The regional characteristics of biomass burning aerosols were found to depend strongly on the modified combustion efficiency (MCE), an index of the combustion processes of a fire. Organic aerosol emissions had negative correlations with MCE, whereas the oxidation state of organic aerosol increased with MCE and plume aging. The relationships between the aerosol properties and MCE were consistent between fresh emissions (∼1 h old) and emissions sampled after atmospheric transport (6-45 h), suggesting that biomass burning organic aerosol concentration and chemical properties were strongly influenced by combustion processes at the source and conserved to a significant extent during regional transport. These results suggest that MCE can be a useful metric for describing aerosol properties of wildfire emissions and their impacts on regional air quality and global climate.",

author = "Sonya Collier and Shan Zhou and Onasch, \{Timothy B.\} and Jaffe, \{Daniel A.\} and Lawrence Kleinman and Sedlacek, \{Arthur J.\} and Briggs, \{Nicole L.\} and Jonathan Hee and Edward Fortner and Shilling, \{John E.\} and Douglas Worsnop and Yokelson, \{Robert J.\} and Caroline Parworth and Xinlei Ge and Jianzhong Xu and Zachary Butterfield and Duli Chand and Dubey, \{Manvendra K.\} and Pekour, \{Mikhail S.\} and Stephen Springston and Qi Zhang",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2016 American Chemical Society.",

year = "2016",

month = aug,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1021/acs.est.6b01617",

language = "English",

volume = "50",

pages = "8613--8622",

journal = "Environmental Science and Technology",

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Collier, S, Zhou, S, Onasch, TB, Jaffe, DA, Kleinman, L, Sedlacek, AJ, Briggs, NL, Hee, J, Fortner, E, Shilling, JE, Worsnop, D, Yokelson, RJ, Parworth, C, Ge, X, Xu, J, Butterfield, Z, Chand, D, Dubey, MK, Pekour, MS, Springston, S & Zhang, Q 2016, 'Regional Influence of Aerosol Emissions from Wildfires Driven by Combustion Efficiency: Insights from the BBOP Campaign', Environmental Science and Technology, vol. 50, no. 16, pp. 8613-8622. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b01617

TY - JOUR

T1 - Regional Influence of Aerosol Emissions from Wildfires Driven by Combustion Efficiency

T2 - Insights from the BBOP Campaign

AU - Collier, Sonya

AU - Zhou, Shan

AU - Onasch, Timothy B.

AU - Jaffe, Daniel A.

AU - Kleinman, Lawrence

AU - Sedlacek, Arthur J.

AU - Briggs, Nicole L.

AU - Hee, Jonathan

AU - Fortner, Edward

AU - Shilling, John E.

AU - Worsnop, Douglas

AU - Yokelson, Robert J.

AU - Parworth, Caroline

AU - Ge, Xinlei

AU - Xu, Jianzhong

AU - Butterfield, Zachary

AU - Chand, Duli

AU - Dubey, Manvendra K.

AU - Pekour, Mikhail S.

AU - Springston, Stephen

AU - Zhang, Qi

PY - 2016/8/16

Y1 - 2016/8/16

N2 - Wildfires are important contributors to atmospheric aerosols and a large source of emissions that impact regional air quality and global climate. In this study, the regional and nearfield influences of wildfire emissions on ambient aerosol concentration and chemical properties in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States were studied using real-time measurements from a fixed ground site located in Central Oregon at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory (∼2700 m a.s.l.) as well as near their sources using an aircraft. The regional characteristics of biomass burning aerosols were found to depend strongly on the modified combustion efficiency (MCE), an index of the combustion processes of a fire. Organic aerosol emissions had negative correlations with MCE, whereas the oxidation state of organic aerosol increased with MCE and plume aging. The relationships between the aerosol properties and MCE were consistent between fresh emissions (∼1 h old) and emissions sampled after atmospheric transport (6-45 h), suggesting that biomass burning organic aerosol concentration and chemical properties were strongly influenced by combustion processes at the source and conserved to a significant extent during regional transport. These results suggest that MCE can be a useful metric for describing aerosol properties of wildfire emissions and their impacts on regional air quality and global climate.

AB - Wildfires are important contributors to atmospheric aerosols and a large source of emissions that impact regional air quality and global climate. In this study, the regional and nearfield influences of wildfire emissions on ambient aerosol concentration and chemical properties in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States were studied using real-time measurements from a fixed ground site located in Central Oregon at the Mt. Bachelor Observatory (∼2700 m a.s.l.) as well as near their sources using an aircraft. The regional characteristics of biomass burning aerosols were found to depend strongly on the modified combustion efficiency (MCE), an index of the combustion processes of a fire. Organic aerosol emissions had negative correlations with MCE, whereas the oxidation state of organic aerosol increased with MCE and plume aging. The relationships between the aerosol properties and MCE were consistent between fresh emissions (∼1 h old) and emissions sampled after atmospheric transport (6-45 h), suggesting that biomass burning organic aerosol concentration and chemical properties were strongly influenced by combustion processes at the source and conserved to a significant extent during regional transport. These results suggest that MCE can be a useful metric for describing aerosol properties of wildfire emissions and their impacts on regional air quality and global climate.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/84983460351

U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.6b01617

DO - 10.1021/acs.est.6b01617

M3 - Article

C2 - 27398804

AN - SCOPUS:84983460351

SN - 0013-936X

VL - 50

SP - 8613

EP - 8622

JO - Environmental Science and Technology

JF - Environmental Science and Technology

IS - 16

ER -

Regional Influence of Aerosol Emissions from Wildfires Driven by Combustion Efficiency: Insights from the BBOP Campaign

Abstract

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UN SDGs

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