Bulk and molecular-level characterization of laboratory-aged biomass burning organic aerosol from oak leaf and heartwood fuels

Secondary organic aerosol formation from biomass burning

Effects of aging on organic aerosol from open biomass burning smoke in aircraft and laboratory studies

Biomass burning (BB) is a large source of primary and secondary organic aerosols (POA and SOA). This study addresses the physical and chemical evolution of BB organic aerosols. Firstly, the evolution and lifetime of BB POA and SOA signatures observed with the Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer are investigated, focusing on measurements at high-latitudes acquired during the 2008 NASA ARCTAS miss...

Molecular Characterization of Brown Carbon in Biomass Burning Aerosol Particles.

Emissions from biomass burning are a significant source of brown carbon (BrC) in the atmosphere. In this study, we investigate the molecular composition of freshly emitted biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA) samples collected during test burns of sawgrass, peat, ponderosa pine, and black spruce. We demonstrate that both the BrC absorption and the chemical composition of light-absorbing compo...

Aged boreal biomass - burning aerosol size distributions from BORTAS 2011

Biomass-burning aerosols contribute to aerosol radiative forcing on the climate system. The magnitude of this effect is partially determined by aerosol size distributions, which are functions of source fire characteristics (e.g. fuel type, MCE) and in-plume microphysical processing. The uncertainties in biomass-burning emission number–size distributions in climate model inventories lead to unce...

Organic aerosol emission ratios from the laboratory combustion of biomass fuels

Organic aerosol (OA) emission ratios (ER) have been characterized for 67 burns during the second Fire Laboratory at Missoula Experiment. These fires involved 19 different species representing 6 major fuels, each of which forms an important contribution to the U.S. biomass burning inventory. Average normalized ΔOA/ΔCO ratios show a high degree of variability, both between and within different fu...