Aerosol elemental carbon concentration

The carbon analyzer has been used to analyze filters from 42 urban sites and 22 non-urban sites in the United States. These filters were obtained from the National Air Surveillance Network (NASN) filter bank for 1975. Carbon concentrations and mass fractions for Detroit, Michigan, are shown in Figures 5 and 6. Both the organic and elemental carbon concentrations are highly variable, and no seasonal trends are apparent. For this site elemental carbon constituted 38% of total aerosol carbon. Typical values for other sites ranged between 35 and 55%. 

To verify this hypothesis, low volume samplers have been operated in parallel with the air pollution control district s Km samplers. The samples collected were analyzed optically for elemental carbon and by the Gamma Ray Analysis of Light Elements (GRALE) technique for total carbon. These data were used to assess the concentration of elemental and total carbon aerosols present during the winter months in Los Angeles. It was established that the Km samplers can be calibrated to read elemental carbon concentrations. This calibration can be used to reconstruct historical elemental carbon levels at seven sites in Los Angeles. 

Graphitic carbon particles are thought to be the most abundant light-absorbing aerosol species in the atmosphere (2,). Comparison of elemental carbon concentrations from the present study to measurements of b. is presented in Figure 5. A regression line drawn through those data has the equation ... 

If the blackness of the particulate matter collected on a filter is due to the graphitic carbon content of the sample, then the Km unit should convert to ambient elemental carbon concentrations. The form of that translation is apparent from the definition of the Km unit. Elemental carbon concentration measurements made by laboratory reflactometers calibrated against heated butane soot standards show that elemental carbon concentrations are linearly related to the log of the reflectance ratio R /R. Aerosol loadings stated in Km units should be directly proportional to elemental carbon concentrations sampled. 

Turpin B. J. and Huntzicker J. J. Secondary formation of organic aerosol in the Los-angles basin - a descriptive analysis of organic and elemental carbon concentrations. Atmos. Environ. 1991, Vol 25A, No. 2, 207-215. 

Viana M, Chi X, Maenhaut W, Querol X, Alastuey A, Mikuska P, Vecefa Z (2006) Organic and elemental carbon concentrations in carbonaceous aerosols during summer and winter sampling campaigns in Barcelona, Spain. Atmos Environ 40 2180-2193 Walters RW, Luthy RG (1984) Equilibrium adsorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from water onto activated carbon. Environ Sci Technol 18 395 03... 

Aerosol carbon concentrations have been measured at two sites in the Los Angeles basin. Samples were analyzed for total carbon content and for elemental carbon content by the Gamma Ray Analysis of Light Elements technique and by several optical methods. Elemental carbon was shown to constitute a substantial fraction of total carbonaceous aerosol mass in the wintertime in Los Angeles. 

Organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC) concentrations in smoke aerosol can be measured by using a semicontinuous thermal-optical OC/EC instruments [18]. Water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and water-soluble ions can be detected in smoke plumes with a PILS combined with a total organic carbon analyzer [30] and IC [19]. Besides smoke-specific tracers, the HR-ToF-AMS enables to study the concentrations of organic matter (OM), nitrate, ammonium, sulfate, and chloride in smoke particles [30]. Black carbon (BC) can be measured in real-time with several instruments, e.g., with aethalometer [19], multi-angle absorption photometer [29], and particle soot absorption photometer [25]. 

Some studies have also shown that carbonaceous material can be responsible for about 1.2-31% of the coarse fraction mass concentration of the atmospheric aerosol (Maenhaut et al., 2002 Hueglin et al., 2005). Nevertheless, the highest concentrations (17-48%) of organic matter and elemental carbon are found predominantly... 

Particulate emissions are by-products of fuel combustion, industrial processes, and motor vehicles and are believed to have a significant potential for causing adverse health effects. Carbonaceous material present in atmospheric aerosols is a combination of elemental carbon and organic and inorganic compounds. Particulate matter may also consist of fly ash, minerals, or road dust and contain traces of a number of heavy metals. Population-based studies have consistently found that the association between adverse respiratory effects and particulate concentrations occurs in a number of regions throughout the United States. This association is strongest for PM]o and PM2.5 indices (particulate matter less than 10 and 2.5 pm in diameter, respectively). The observed adverse effects include increases in total mortality, mortality due to respiratory and cardiovascular causes, chronic bronchitis, and hospital visits and admissions for asthma. Elderly or unhealthy individuals and infants appear to comprise subpopulations that are most sensitive to the adverse health effects of PM. 

Table VI summarizes aerosol mass concentrations and composition in different regions of the troposphere. It is interesting to note that average total fine particle mass (that associated with particles of diameter less than about 2 /im) in non-urban continental, i.e., regional, aerosols is only a factor of two lower than urban values. This reflects the relatively long residence time of particles (recall the estimate of a lifetime of fine particles by dry deposition of 10 days). Correspondingly, the average composition of non-urban continental and urban aerosols is roughly the same. The average mass concentration of remote aerosols is a factor of three lower than that of non-urban continental aerosols. The elemental carbon component, a direct indicator of anthropogenic combustion sources, drops to 0.3% in the remote aerosols, but sulfate is still a major compo-...

Denver during winter, elemental carbon was responsible for about 40% of visibility reduction. The disproportionately large influence of black carbon on light extinction, relative to its concentration, arises in part, as we will see, because black carbon is more effective than nonabsorbing aerosol particles (such as sulfates and nitrates) of the same size in attenuating light (Faxvog and Roessler 1978). 

The ratio of elemental (EC) to organic carbon (OC) has been measured in many studies and is commonly found to be less than one. For example, Shah et al. (1986) measured EC and OC in particles from both urban and rural areas across the United States and found the urban average concentrations to be 6.6 /xg m 3 for OC and 3.8 gg m 3 for EC, i.e., a ratio of EC OC of 0.6. Similarly, in the Los Angeles area, EC typically represents about a third of the carbonaceous component of particles (Rogge et al., 1993d). For rural areas, the concentrations were about a third of those in the urban areas, but the ratio was about the same, at 0.5, consistent with ratios of 0.4-0.5 measured in the Ohio River Valley by Huntzicker et al. (1986). Novakov et al. (1997) measured carbonaceous aerosol off the east coast of the United States at altitudes from 0.2 to 3.0 km and report that the ratio of EC OC is 0.1. 

An increase of C02 concentration in the atmosphere does not determine substantial fertilization of marine bioproductivity—but does lead to pH decrease. As temperature grows, C02 assimilation by the ocean decreases, but C02 emissions due to upwellings are reduced and the transport of excess carbon to deep layers of the ocean diminishes. The anthropogenically induced input of nutrients to the oceans through river run-off and deposition of atmospheric aerosols (especially nitrate and iron as elements of atmospheric aerosols) can affect bioproductivity. 

Figure 7.2 Solid-state speciation in a crustal aerosol collected close to the Saharan Desert and an urban aerosol collected in the UK (Spokes et al., 1994). Results are expressed as a percentage of the total elemental concentration and obtained using a three stage sequential leach using the method of Chester et al. (1989). Stage one uses 1.0 M ammonium acetate to release loosely bound metals. Stage two involves addition of 1.0M hydroxylamine hydrochloride in 25% acetic acid to the residue to release metals held within the oxide and carbonate phases. Stage three uses nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid to break down the aluminosilicate lattice and release metals associated with the crustal fraction of the aerosol.

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