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    Molecular distributions of dicarboxylic acids, oxocarboxylic acids and α-dicarbonyls in PM2.5 collected at the top of Mt. Tai, North China, during the wheat burning season of 2014
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2018) Zhu, Yanhong; Yang, Lingxiao; Chen, Jianmin; Kawamura, Kimitaka; Sato, Mamiko; Tilgner, Andreas; van Pinxteren, Dominik; Chen, Ying; Xue, Likun; Wang, Xinfeng; Simpson, Isobel J.; Herrmann, Hartmut; Blake, Donald R.; Wang, Wenxing
    Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) samples collected at Mount (Mt.) Tai in the North China Plain during summer 2014 were analyzed for dicarboxylic acids and related compounds (oxocarboxylic acids and α-dicarbonyls) (DCRCs). The total concentration of DCRCs was 1050±580 and 1040±490ng m-3 during the day and night, respectively. Although these concentrations were about 2 times lower than similar measurements in 2006, the concentrations reported here were about 1-13 times higher than previous measurements in other major cities in the world. Molecular distributions of DCRCs revealed that oxalic acid (C2) was the dominant species (50%), followed by succinic acid (C4) (12%) and malonic acid (C3) (8%). WRF modeling revealed that Mt. Tai was mostly in the free troposphere during the campaign and long-range transport was a major factor governing the distributions of the measured compounds at Mt. Tai. A majority of the samples (79%) had comparable concentrations during the day and night, with their day-night concentration ratios between 0.9 and 1.1. Multi-day transport was considered an important reason for the similar concentrations. Correlation analyses of DCRCs and their gas precursors and between C2 and sulfate indicated precursor emissions and aqueous-phase oxidations during long-range transport also likely play an important role, especially during the night. Source identification indicated that anthropogenic activities followed by photochemical aging accounted for about 60% of the total variance and were the dominant source at Mt. Tai. However, biomass burning was only important during the first half of the measurement period. Measurements of potassium (K+) and DCRCs were about 2 times higher than those from the second half of the measurement period. The concentration of levoglucosan, a biomass burning tracer, decreased by about 80% between 2006 and 2014, indicating that biomass burning may have decreased between 2006 and 2014.
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    A parameterization of the heterogeneous hydrolysis of N2O5 for mass-based aerosol models: Improvement of particulate nitrate prediction
    (Katlenburg-Lindau : EGU, 2018) Chen, Ying; Wolke, Ralf; Ran, Liang; Birmili, Wolfram; Spindler, Gerald; Schröder, Wolfram; Su, Hang; Cheng, Yafang; Tegen, Ina; Wiedensohler, Alfred
    The heterogeneous hydrolysis of N2O5 on the surface of deliquescent aerosol leads to HNO3 formation and acts as a major sink of NOx in the atmosphere during night-time. The reaction constant of this heterogeneous hydrolysis is determined by temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), aerosol particle composition, and the surface area concentration (S). However, these parameters were not comprehensively considered in the parameterization of the heterogeneous hydrolysis of N2O5 in previous mass-based 3-D aerosol modelling studies. In this investigation, we propose a sophisticated parameterization (NewN2O5) of N2O5 heterogeneous hydrolysis with respect to T, RH, aerosol particle compositions, and S based on laboratory experiments. We evaluated closure between NewN2O5 and a state-of-the-art parameterization based on a sectional aerosol treatment. The comparison showed a good linear relationship (R Combining double low line 0.91) between these two parameterizations. NewN2O5 was incorporated into a 3-D fully online coupled model, COSMO-Muscat, with the mass-based aerosol treatment. As a case study, we used the data from the HOPE Melpitz campaign (10-25 September 2013) to validate model performance. Here, we investigated the improvement of nitrate prediction over western and central Europe. The modelled particulate nitrate mass concentrations ([NO3-]) were validated by filter measurements over Germany (Neuglobsow, Schmücke, Zingst, and Melpitz). The modelled [NO3-] was significantly overestimated for this period by a factor of 5-19, with the corrected NH3 emissions (reduced by 50 %) and the original parameterization of N2O5 heterogeneous hydrolysis. The NewN2O5 significantly reduces the overestimation of [NO3-] by ∼ 35 %. Particularly, the overestimation factor was reduced to approximately 1.4 in our case study (12, 17-18 and 25 September 2013) when [NO3-] was dominated by local chemical formations. In our case, the suppression of organic coating was negligible over western and central Europe, with an influence on [NO3-] of less than 2 % on average and 20 % at the most significant moment. To obtain a significant impact of the organic coating effect, N2O5, SOA, and NH3 need to be present when RH is high and T is low. However, those conditions were rarely fulfilled simultaneously over western and central Europe. Hence, the organic coating effect on the reaction probability of N2O5 may not be as significant as expected over western and central Europe.