Ice Nucleation Properties of Amospherically Aged Biomass Burning Aerosol

Abstract:

Biomass burning can sometimes emit surprisingly active ice nucleating particles, though these emissions are not at all consistent between biomass fuel sources and burns. Soot from biomass combustion has been attributed to some but not all of the ice nucleating potential of biomass burning aerosol (BBA), while fossil fuel combustion soot emits very weak ice nucleants. The causes of the sometimes significant but variable ice nucleating ability of BBA are still largely unknown.

BBA experiences significant atmospheric aging as the plume evolves and mixes with background air, yet almost no reports exploring the effects of atmospheric aging on the freezing properties of BBA have been made. We have performed some of the first experiments to determine the effects of simulated atmospheric aging on these ice nucleation properties, using a chamber reactor. The fresh and aged BBA was collected for subsequent droplet freezing array analysis using an impinger sampler to collect aerosol in water, and by deposition onto substrates in a MOUDI sampler. Droplets containing the chamber particles were then suspended in oil on a cold plate for freezing temperature spectrum measurement.

Aging of Sawgrass flaming-phase combustion BBA by exposure to hydroxyl radicals (from H₂O₂ photolysis) enhanced the ice nucleation ability, observed by a shift to warmer droplet freezing temperatures by ~2-3°C. The changes in the aerosol’s chemical composition during aging were observed using a laser ablation single-particle mass spectrometer and a soot-particle aerosol mass spectrometer. We will report our observations of the effects of other types of simulated aging (including photochemistry under high and low NO_x conditions, dark ozonolysis, and nitric acid exposure) on Sawgrass and BBA from other grass and palm fuels.