AGS-PRF: Investigation of Pollution Sources and Transport Using Continuous Long-Term Measurements of Volatile Organic Compounds as Atmospheric Tracers

Stephens Chelsea R, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

An AGS Post-Doctoral Fellow will undertake analysis of long-term, continuous, high-resolution data set (2009-2011) of methane and non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) at Summit, Greenland as tracers for identifying and studying transport of individual pollution events to the Arctic, along with their primary source regions. Investigations will be conducted to determine the seasonal and yearly frequency and variability of pollutant transport events and their impacts on the Arctic climate system. Similar NMHC measurements from other high-altitude sites (i.e. Pico Mountain, Jungfraujoch, Hohenpeissenberg) will be compared to the Summit data to establish background conditions and determine whether Summit, in comparison to other sites, is subjected to more or less transport at different times of year. Positive matrix factorization will be used as a tool to decipher emissions sources and their contributions to Arctic pollution events. FLEXPART-based transport modeling studies will be incorporated to perform source region allocations of pollution events. This research is supported under the AGS Postdoctoral Research Fellowship program.