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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Emission fluxes and atmospheric degradation of monoterpenes above a boreal forest: Field measurements and modelling
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2001) Spanke, Jörg; Rannik, Üllar; Forkel, Renate; Nigge, Walter; Hoffman, Thorsten
    The contribution of monoterpenes to aerosol formation processes within and above forests is not well understood. This is also true for the particle formation events observed during the BIOFOR campaigns in Hyytiälä, Finland. Therefore, the diurnal variation of the concentrations of several biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) and selected oxidation products in the gas and particle phase were measured on selected days during the campaigns in Hyytiälä, Finland. α-pinene and Δ3-carene were found to represent the most important monoterpenes above the boreal forest. A clear vertical gradient of their concentrations was observed together with a change of the relative monoterpene composition with height. Based on concentration profile measurements of monoterpenes, their fluxes above the forest canopy were calculated using the gradient approach. Most of the time, the BVOC fluxes show a clear diurnal variation with a maximum around noon. The highest fluxes were observed for α-pinene with values up to 20 ng m−2 s−1 in summer time and almost 100 ng m−2 s−1 during the spring campaign. Furthermore, the main oxidation products from α-pinene, pinonaldehyde, and from β-pinene, nopinone, were detected in the atmosphere above the forest. In addition to these more volatile oxidation products, pinic and pinonic acid were identified in the particle phase in a concentration range between 1 and 4 ng m−3. Beside these direct measurement of known oxidation products, the chemical sink term in the flux calculations was used to estimate the amount of product formation of the major terpenes (α-pinene, β-pinene, Δ3-carene). A production rate of very low volatile oxidation products (e.g., multifunctional carboxylic) from ·OH- and O3-reaction of monoterpenes of about 1.3·104 molecules cm−3 s−1 was estimated for daylight conditions during summer time. Additionally, model calculations with the one-dimensional multilayer model CACHE were carried out to investigate the diurnal course of BVOC fluxes and chemical degradation of terpenes.
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    Atmospheric new particle formation at Utö, Baltic Sea 2003-2005
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2017) Hyvärinen, A.-P.; Komppula, M.; Engler, C.; Kivekäs, N.; Kerminen, V.-M.; Dal Maso, M.; Viisanen, Y.; Lihavainen, H.
    Nearly 3 yr (March 2003–December 2005) of continuous particle number size distribution measurements have been conducted at the island of Ut¨o in the Baltic Sea. The measured particle size range was from 7 to 530 nm. During the measurement period, a total of 103 regional new-particle formation events were observed. The characteristics of the nucleation events at Ut¨o were similar to those reported in the literature in other Nordic sites, though measured condensation sinks were rather high (geometric mean of 3.8 × 10−3 s−1) during event days. Clear evidence was found that new particles nucleate regionally near Ut¨o, rather than are transported from greater distances. However, the Baltic Sea seems to have an inhibiting effect on new-particle formation. The boreal forest areas in the continental Finland were found to have an enhancing effect on the nucleation probability in Ut¨o, suggesting that at least some of the precursor gases for nucleation and/or condensational growth of particles originate from these forests. In addition to regional new-particle formation events, a total of 94 local events were observed in Ut¨o. These are short-lived events with a small footprint area, and can at least partly be tracked down to the emissions of ship traffic operating at Ut¨o.
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    Aerosol particle formation events and analysis of high growth rates observed above a subarctic wetland-forest mosaic
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2017) Svenningsson, Birgitta; Arneth, Almut; Hayward, Sean; Holst, Thomas; Massling, Andreas; Swietlicki, Erik; Hirsikko, Anne; Junninen, Heikki; Riipinen, Ilona; Vana, Marko; Dal Maso, Miikka; Hussein, Tareq; Kulmala, Markku
    An analysis of particle formation (PF) events over a subarctic mire in northern Swedenwas performed, based on number– size distributions of atmospheric aerosol particles (10–500 nm in diameter) and ions (0.4–40 nm in Tammet diameter). We present classification statistics for PF events from measurements covering the period July 2005–September 2006, with a break over the winter period. The PF event frequency peaked during the summer months, in contrast to other Scandinavian sites where the frequency is highest during spring and autumn. Our analysis includes calculated growth rates and estimates of concentrations and production rates of condensing vapour, deduced from the growth rates and condensational sink calculations, using AIS and SMPS data. Particle formation events with high growth rates (up to 50 nm h-1) occurred repeatedly. In these cases, the newly formed nucleation mode particles were often only present for periods of a few hours. On several occasions, repeated particle formation events were observed within 1 d, with differences in onset time of a few hours. These high growth rates were only observed when the condensation sink was higher than 0.001 s-1.
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    A simple non-linear analytical relationship between aerosol accumulation number and sub-micron volume, explaining their observed ratio in the clean and polluted marine boundary layer
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2016) Van Dingenen, Rita; Virkkula, Aki O.; Raes, Frank; Bates, Timothy S.; Wiedensohler, Alfred
    We propose an analytical expression for the relation between aerosol accumulation number and sub-micron volume over the marine boundary layer (MBL), based on a simple balance equation. By providing appropriate source and sink terms which account for entrainment, coagulation, in-cloud scavenging and condensational growth, the model is able to reproduce the observed ratio between MBL particles larger than 80 nm diameter (as a proxy for accumulation mode number) and submicron aerosol volume, from freshly polluted to background conditions. Entrainment and coagulation are essential in predicting the observed ratio. Budget and lifetime calculations show that, due to relatively low source rates of oceanic non-sea-salt-sulfate and sea-salt, the anthropogenic signature in aerosol volume remains significant even after 8 days of MBL transport.
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    Overview of the international project on biogenic aerosol formation in the boreal forest (BIOFOR)
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2001) Kulmala, M.; Hämeri, K.; Aalto, P.P.; Mäkelä, J.M.; Pirjola, L.; Nilsson, E. Douglas; Buzorius, G.; Rannik, Ü.; Dal Maso, M.; Seidl, W.; Hoffman, T.; Janson, R.; Hansson, H.-C.; Viisanen, Y.; Laaksonen, A.; O’dowd, C.D.
    Aerosol formation and subsequent particle growth in ambient air have been frequently observed at a boreal forest site (SMEAR II station) in Southern Finland. The EU funded project BIOFOR (Biogenic aerosol formation in the boreal forest) has focused on: (a) determination of formation mechanisms of aerosol particles in the boreal forest site; (b) verification of emissions of secondary organic aerosols from the boreal forest site; and (c) quantification of the amount of condensable vapours produced in photochemical reactions of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) leading to aerosol formation. The approach of the project was to combine the continuous measurements with a number of intensive field studies. These field studies were organised in three periods, two of which were during the most intense particle production season and one during a non-event season. Although the exact formation route for 3 nm particles remains unclear, the results can be summarised as follows: Nucleation was always connected to Arctic or Polar air advecting over the site, giving conditions for a stable nocturnal boundary layer followed by a rapid formation and growth of a turbulent convective mixed layer closely followed by formation of new particles. The nucleation seems to occur in the mixed layer or entrainment zone. However two more prerequisites seem to be necessary. A certain threshold of high enough sulphuric acid and ammonia concentrations is probably needed as the number of newly formed particles was correlated with the product of the sulphuric acid production and the ammonia concentrations. No such correlation was found with the oxidation products of terpenes. The condensation sink, i.e., effective particle area, is probably of importance as no nucleation was observed at high values of the condensation sink. From measurement of the hygroscopic properties of the nucleation particles it was found that inorganic compounds and hygroscopic organic compounds contributed both to the particle growth during daytime while at night time organic compounds dominated. Emissions rates for several gaseous compounds was determined. Using four independent ways to estimate the amount of the condensable vapour needed for observed growth of aerosol particles we get an estimate of 2–10×107 vapour molecules cm−3. The estimations for source rate give 7.5–11×104 cm−3 s−1. These results lead to the following conclusions: The most probable formation mechanism is ternary nucleation (water-sulphuric acid-ammonia). After nucleation, growth into observable sizes (~3 nm) is required before new particles appear. The major part of this growth is probably due to condensation of organic vapours. However, there is lack of direct proof of this phenomenon because the composition of 1–5 nm size particles is extremely difficult to determine using the present state-of-art instrumentation.