A31F-01
Development and first applications of an OH reactivity instrument based on the Comparative Reactivity Method

Wednesday, 16 December 2015: 08:00
3004 (Moscone West)
Sebastien Dusanter1,2, Vincent Michoud2, Robert F Hansen3, Thierry Leonardis2, Nadine Locoge2, Philip S Stevens1, Marion Blocquet4, Coralie Schoemaecker4, Christa M Fittschen4, Nora Zannoni5, Valerie Gros5, Roland Sarda Esteve5 and Vinayak Sinha6, (1)Indiana University, School of Public and Envrionmental Affairs, Bloomington, IN, United States, (2)Mines Douai, Atmospheric Sciences and Environmental Engineering, Douai, France, (3)University of Leeds, School of Chemistry, Leeds, United Kingdom, (4)Université Lille Nord de France, Physicochimie des Processus de Combustion et de l'Atmosphère, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France, (5)Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, Gif-Sur-Yvette Cedex, France, (6)Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, Mohali, India
Abstract:
Assessing the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere is important to address fundamental issues related to both air quality and climate change. However, recent measurements of total OH reactivity have highlighted an incomplete understanding of the hydroxyl radical (OH) budget, the main oxidizing agent in the atmosphere. This context has led to the development of several techniques for measuring total OH reactivity to better constrain atmospheric chemistry.

This presentation will review the development of an OH reactivity instrument developed at Mines Douai, France. This instrument, based on the Comparative Reactivity Method (CRM), has been carefully characterized in the laboratory and has been compared to other OH reactivity instruments during two different field campaigns. These studies will be summarized to show that CRM instruments can perform reliable measurements in urban and remote areas providing that a few measurement artefacts are well characterized and accounted for during field campaigns.

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