Improved estimation of PM2.5 brown carbon contributions to filter light attenuation (Open Access)--颗粒学报PARTICUOLOGY

Chow, J. C., Chen, L. W. A., Wang, X., Green, M. C., & Watson, J. G. (2021). Improved estimation of PM2.5 brown carbon contributions to filter light attenuation. Particuology, 56, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.partic.2021.01.001

Improved estimation of PM_2.5 brown carbon contributions to filter light attenuation (Open Access)

Judith C. Chow ^{a b c *}, L.-W. Antony Chen ^{a d}, Xiaoliang Wang ^{a c}, Mark C. Green ^{a c}, John G. Watson ^{a b c}

a Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV, USA
b State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, China
c Graduate Faculty, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno Nevada, USA
d Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA

10.1016/j.partic.2021.01.001

Volume 56, June 2021, Pages 1-9

Received 3 December 2020, Revised 5 January 2021, Accepted 6 January 2021, Available online 15 January 2021, Version of Record 8 March 2021.

E-mail: judith.chow@dri.edu

Highlights

• Multiwavelength thermal/optical carbon analysis permits brown carbon estimates.

• Light attenuation deviates from Beer's Law at loadings greater than 3 μg/cm².

• Correction factors increase as wavelength decreases for a given elemental carbon filter loading.

• Black carbon Absorption Ångström Exponents do not always equal unity.

Abstract

Multiwavelength light attenuation measurements have been acquired as part of thermal/optical carbon analysis in the U.S. Chemical Speciation Network (CSN) and the Interagency Monitoring of PROtected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) network beginning in 2016. These are used to estimate PM2.5 brown carbon (BrC) contributions to light absorption at various wavelengths, a useful method for separating biomass burning contributions from other sources. Attenuation of light transmitted through the filter deviates from Beers Law as the mass of light absorbing materials increase. This study estimates the effects of these deviations with empirical adjustment factors applied to samples for CSN from 2016 to 2017 and for IMPROVE from 2016 to 2019. Accounting for the filter loading effect results in an annual average increase of ∼6–7% BrC contribution to light attenuation: from 3.6% to 10.7% for the urban, more heavily loaded CSN samples; and from 23.7% to 29.5% for the non-urban IMPROVE samples. An alternative method is examined for BrC and black carbon (BC) adjustments by calculating the Absorption Ångström Exponent (AAE) for BC (i.e., AAEBC) based on the ratios of 635 nm/780 nm light attenuation rather than assuming AAEBC of unity. These paired-wavelength calculations result in a median AAEBC of 0.76 for CSN and 0.8 for IMPROVE, with the majority of samples (i.e., 91% of CSN and 70% of IMPROVE) showing AAEBC < 1. By assuming negligible contributions from BrC to AAE at longer wavelengths, the amount of light attenuation at shorter wavelengths (e.g., 405 nm) where BrC is dominant can be calculated. The paired-wavelength method applied to the filter loading adjusted data has a greater effect on urban (fresh) than on non-urban (aged) aerosols, resulting in a factor of two increase in annual averaged BrC light attenuation (from 10.7% to 21.6%) for CSN and by a factor of 1.11 (from 29.5% to 32.7%) for IMPROVE samples. This result demonstrates the importance of particle loading and AAE correction on quantifying BrC light attenuation from multi-wavelength thermal/optical analysis.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Organic carbon; Brown carbon; Elemental carbon; Black carbon; Absorption Ångström Exponent

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