Submicron Aerosol Composition during the ARCTAS campaign: Arctic Haze, Biomass Burning, and California Pollution

A High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS, DeCarlo et al., Anal. Chem., 2006) was deployed aboard the NASA DC-8 research aircraft as part of the Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) campaign during the spring and summer of 2008. One focus of the spring phase, operated out of Fairbanks, AK, was to investigate the composition and sources of Arctic Haze (see e.g. Quinn et al., Tellus B, 2007), a persistent pollution layer that accumulates under the stable springtime Polar High anti-cyclonic weather pattern. Results are presented comparing the sulfate-dominated composition of the Arctic Haze with observed North American pollution and biomass- burning layers. A further objective of the spring phase was to investigate halogen chemistry at the sea-ice surface. High-resolution spectra clearly show bromine in the aerosol phase in the marine boundary layer during periods of ozone depletion, and relate this to concurrent gas-phase observations aboard the DC-8. During the summer phase, operated out of Palmdale, CA and Cold Lake, Alberta, the focus was investigating pollution in California and the composition and evolution of the outflow from large-scale boreal forest fires, respectively. Using recently-developed software that enabled the AMS to sample at 1 Hz, the smoke plumes could be clearly differentiated from the background aerosol, detailed vertical profiles were measured during spiral descents and aerosol volatility was characterized with a thermodenuder. Aerosol biomass-burning markers exhibit high correlation with gas-phase fire markers for both Canadian boreal and Californian forest fires. Emission ratios and composition (e.g. inorganic species, organic O/C) are characterized for the different fires. Data from smoke plumes sampled over the extensive summer fires in California provide a contrast in emission profiles to the Canadian boreal biomass-burning aerosol. Finally, aerosol pollution in Southern CA and the Central Valley is analyzed and compared to previous studies.