The sources, properties, and evolution of organic aerosols in the atmosphere

Abstract:

Organic aerosols (OA) account for about 1/2 of the submicron particle mass in the atmosphere leading to important impacts on climate, human health, and other issues, but their sources, properties, and evolution are poorly understood. OA is comprised of primary OA (POA, emitted in the particle phase) and secondary OA (SOA, formed by gas-to-particle conversion). Together with others in the community and contrary to the understanding at the time, we demonstrated in the mid-2000s that SOA dominates over POA at most locations. This paradigm shift has led to intense research on the sources, processing, properties, and fate of SOA. Because pre-existing and commercial instruments were very limited for the analysis of the complex mixtures of highly oxidized species comprising real OA, we developed or co-developed several experimental and data analysis techniques aimed at extracting more information out of ambient and laboratory air, and pioneered their application in field experiments. We proposed a new paradigm (Jimenez et al., Science, 2009) that is consistent with worldwide measurements and in which OA and OA precursor gases evolve continuously by becoming increasingly oxidized, less volatile, and more hygroscopic, leading to the formation of oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA), with concentrations comparable to those of sulfate aerosol throughout the Northern Hemisphere. The amount of SOA formed from urban air is remarkably consistent across the world, although the contributions of different sources remain a subject of debate. Biomass burning emissions rarely form additional OA mass after emission, although rapid chemical aging is always observed. Global model-measurement comparisons suggest the need for a large (100 Tg/yr) “anthropogenically-controlled” SOA source, thought to be dominated by anthropogenically-enhanced biogenic SOA. SOA formed from several pathways from biogenic emissions is starting to be better characterized, as are key SOA properties such as hygrosopicity, volatility, and oxidation lifetime. In-situ SOA formation in oxidation flow reactors provides useful constraints on the SOA formation potential of different airmasses.