Laboratory Study on Water Uptake by Freshly Emitted Peat Smoke Particles in Southeast Asia

Abstract:

Tropical peatland burning activities in Southeast Asia, which can keep smouldering for a long time, have been becoming rather frequent during the last few decades. These combustions have released huge amounts of greenhouse gases and aerosol particles into the atmosphere, contributing large uncertainties to the global radiative forcing estimation. In addition, the gas and aerosol particles emitted from the peat-fire have caused environmental and human health issues. These regional and global impacts are closely tied to water uptake properties of aerosol particles, which alter their physical and chemical characteristics. However, hygroscopic property of peat burning aerosol particles has rarely been investigated. Here, we utilized a self-built Humidified Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer (HTDMA) to measure diameter growth factors of fresh peat burning particles, which were generated during laboratory peat combustion experiments under controlled conditions. Particle number size distribution and chemical composition were also measured using a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) and the Time of Flight - Aerosol Chemical Speciation Monitor (ToF-ACSM). Number size distribution demonstrated a bimodal pattern, with the mode diameters in the size ranges of 50-80 nm and 300-500 nm, respectively. The corresponding normalized volume size distribution was unimodal distributed with mode diameter at around 400-600nm. Water uptake of freshly emitted peat smoke aerosol particles was less hygroscopic, probably because fresh peat burning aerosol particles were predominantly composed of organic compounds and sulfates were negligible. The obtained information can be further applied into the studies on the influence of peat burning aerosol particles on regional and global climate.