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Published August 2006 | Published
Journal Article Open

On the flux of oxygenated volatile organic compounds from organic aerosol oxidation

Abstract

Previous laboratory and field studies suggest that oxidation of organic aerosols can be a source of oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOC). Using measurements of atmospheric oxidants and aerosol size distributions performed on the NASA DC-8 during the INTEX-NA campaign, we estimate the potential magnitude of the continental summertime OVOC flux from organic aerosol oxidation by OH to be as large as ∼70 pptv C/day in the free troposphere. Contributions from O_3, H_2O_2, photolysis, and other oxidants may increase this estimate. These processes may provide a large, diffuse source of OVOC that has not been included in current atmospheric models, and thus have a significant impact on our understanding of organic aerosol, OVOC, PAN, and HO_x chemistry. The potential importance and highly uncertain nature of our estimate highlights the need for more field and laboratory studies on organic aerosol composition and aging.

Additional Information

© 2006 American Geophysical Union. Received 24 February 2006; revised 17 April 2006; accepted 12 June 2006; article first published online 9 August 2006. We thank Jonathan Abbatt (University of Toronto) for reviewing a draft of this manuscript, Steven Howell (University of Hawai'i at Manoa) for helpful discussions, Clyde Brown (NASA Langley Research Center) for preparing merged data files, and the NASA Tropospheric Chemistry Program office for support of the INTEX-NA campaign (grant NNG04FA59G). This material is based upon work supported under a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (AJK). This article was also developed under a STAR Research Assistance Agreement FP-91633401-2 awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (JDC). It has not been formally reviewed by the EPA. The views expressed in this document are solely those of the authors and the EPA does not endorse any products or commercial services mentioned in this publication.

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August 22, 2023
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