Light Absorption Properties of Brown Carbon from Fresh and Aged Biomass Burning Aerosols Characterized in a Smog Chamber

Black carbon is an important particulate phase light absorber in the atmosphere. Recent studies have shown that some organic matter also absorb visible light, especially at short wavelengths. These organic compounds are referred to as "brown carbon". Biomass burning is a major contributor to brown carbon in atmospheric particulate matter; however, its optical properties are poorly characterized. We have conducted smog chamber experiments to investigate light absorption properties of brown carbon in primary and aged biomass burning emissions, namely the imaginary refractive index. The aging was performed in a smog chamber, where dilute emissions were exposed to UV lights to initiate photo-oxidation, which often produced substantial secondary organic aerosol. The experiments took place at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and at the US Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, MT as part of the Fire Lab at Missoula field campaign (FLAME 2009). The CMU experiments simulated household wood burning (oak), and the FLAME experiments simulated wildland fires with fuels including gallberry, lodgepole pine, black spruce and ponderosa pine. Absorption coefficients were measured using an Aethalometer (Magee Scientific) at 7 different wavelengths ranging between 370 nm and 950 nm. The black carbon size distributions were measured using a Single Particle Soot Photometer (SP2, DMT), and total aerosol size distributions were measured using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS, TSI). The absorption coefficients of both the fresh and aged aerosol were significantly larger, and had stronger wavelength dependence than what would be expected for black carbon alone, and for a black carbon core with a non-absorbing shell. This indicates that biomass burning organic aerosol should be classified as brown carbon. A (black carbon) core - (brown carbon) shell absorption model based on Mie theory was optimized to determine the shell imaginary refractive index which produces model outputs that fit measured absorption coefficients. The fresh and aged aerosol had similar optical properties, with shell imaginary refractive index ranging between 0.2 and 0.4 at 550 nm, and wavelength dependence between λ-2 and λ-3. These values correspond to absorption efficiencies comparable to black carbon at short visible wavelengths. Assuming a clear (non-absorbing) shell overestimates the single scattering albedo by up to a factor of 2, and underestimates the simple forcing efficiency by up to an order of magnitude.