Using δ13C of Levoglucosan as a Chemical Clock to Determine Aerosol Chemical Age
Abstract
Combining laboratory kinetic studies, source sample analysis and field observations, we show that the stable carbon isotopic composition of levoglucosan can be used as a tracer for aerosol photochemical age. The study focuses on results from an intensive fire period in the Guangdong province, China. Comparing isotopic chemical age with the results from lagrangian back trajectory analysis, we find good agreement, supporting the use of δ13C as indicator for chemical age. Overall chemical loss exceeds 50% in one fifth of the analyzed samples, implying larger biomass burning aerosol sources than inferred from mass balance approaches utilizing levoglucosan as biomass burning tracer.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.A21M2907G
- Keywords:
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- 0322 Constituent sources and sinks;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0330 Geochemical cycles;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 0426 Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- BIOGEOSCIENCES