Investigating Single Particles from Volcanic Emissions During ACE-Asia

Volcanic eruptions represent a significant source of dust and SO2. It has been estimated that volcanic emissions of aerosols are in the range of 4 to 10000 teragrams per year on a global scale. These emissions can cause visibility degradation, can penetrate into the lungs and can be transported over continents. Currently, on a single particle level, there is limited knowledge of this important source of aerosols. As part of a large field campaign, the Asian Pacific Regional Aerosol Chemical Experiment (ACE-Asia), Aerosol Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry, ATOFMS, was located aboard the NOAA Research Vessel Ronald H. Brown. ATOFMS characterized the size and chemical composition of aerosols on a Pacific transect from Hawaii to the Sea of Japan. ATOFMS has been used for source characterization studies, establishing unique single particle signatures of biomass burning, vehicular emissions (i.e. gas, diesel), coal combustion, sea salt, dust, and a number of other sources. On the transect, particles with signatures from these sources was evident, however new particle types were observed during the activity of the Miyakejima volcano. During this time period, the gas phase concentration of sulfur dioxide peaked as well. In this presentation, unique signatures for volcanic emissions at the single particle level will be investigated. In addition, the temporal evolution of the unique particle types will be discussed and compared with simultaneously acquired radiation and gas phase measurements as well as trajectory information.