Emissions and Photochemistry of Oxygenated VOCs in the Outflow from Urban Centers in the Northeastern U.S.
Abstract
In the summer of 2004 an extensive air quality study was conducted in the northeastern U.S. in the framework of the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation (ICARTT). The outflow of pollutants from urban centers, such as New York City, Boston and others, was characterized using ship-based measurements onboard the NOAA research vessel Ronald H. Brown and airborne measurements from the NOAA WP-3 aircraft. Here we focus on the emissions and photochemical processing of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), with a special focus on oxygenated VOCs. It will be shown that the emissions of VOCs are well characterized on regional scales, but that the emission sources of oxygenated VOCs are still poorly understood. The VOCs are processed after emission, leading to the formation of carbonyls, organic acids and other secondary species. We will describe the evolution of oxygenated VOCs in urban outflow using the data from individual plumes sampled from the NOAA WP-3 aircraft, which could be traced to specific source regions using the Lagrangian transport model FLEXPART. The secondary formation of aldehydes, ketones and acids is clearly observed, and is compared with the potential formation rates from the known precursors.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2005
- Bibcode:
- 2005AGUFM.A31E..05D
- Keywords:
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- 0322 Constituent sources and sinks;
- 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305;
- 0478;
- 4251);
- 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry