Volatile organic compounds composition of merged and aged forest fire plumes from Alaska and western Canada

Authors

Joost A. de Gouw, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
C. Warneke, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
A. Stohl, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
A. G. Wollny, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
C. A. Brock, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
O. R. Cooper, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
J. S. Holloway, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
M. Trainer, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
F. C. Fehsenfeld, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
E. L. Atlas, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric ScienceFollow
Stephen G. Donnelly Ph.D., Fort Hays State UniversityFollow
V. Stroud, National Center for Atmospheric Research
A. Lueb, National Center for Atmospheric Research

Abstract

The NOAA WP-3 aircraft intercepted aged forest fire plumes from Alaska and western Canada during several flights of the NEAQS-ITCT 2k4 mission in 2004. Measurements of acetonitrile (CH3CN) indicated that the air masses had been influenced by biomass burning. The locations of the plume intercepts were well described using emissions estimates and calculations with the transport model FLEXPART. The best description of the data was generally obtained when FLEXPART injected the forest fire emissions to high altitudes in the model. The observed plumes were generally drier than the surrounding air masses at the same altitude, suggesting that the fire plumes had been processed by clouds and that moisture had been removed by precipitation. Different degrees of photochemical processing of the plumes were determined from the measurements of aromatic VOCs. The removal of aromatic VOCs was slow considering the transport times estimated from the FLEXPART model. This suggests that the average OH levels were low during the transport, which may be explained by the low humidity and high concentrations of carbon monoxide and other pollutants. In contrast with previous work, no strong secondary production of acetone, methanol and acetic acid is inferred from the measurements. A clear case of removal of submicron particle volume and acetic acid due to precipitation scavenging was observed. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.

Document Type

Article

Source Publication

Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres

Version

Published version

DOI

10.1029/2005JD006175

Publication Date

5-27-2006

Volume

111

Issue

10

Rights

© American Geophysical Union

Comments

For questions contact ScholarsRepository@fhsu.edu

Recommended Citation

de Gouw, J. A., et al. (2006), Volatile organic compounds composition of merged and aged forest fire plumes from Alaska and western Canada, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D10303, doi:10.1029/2005JD006175.