GoAmazon 2014 Contributions of Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds to Organic Aerosol Formation in the Presence and Absence of Anthropogenic Pollution

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

This project is focused on elucidating the chemical and physical processes that control the atmospheric oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) in the atmosphere and the subsequent formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA). It is also investigating the influence of anthropogenic pollution on these processes. The project is part of a collaborative field study located in the Amazon region around Manaus, Brazil. NSF previously funded this principal investigator to evaluate the role of BVOC in forming secondary organic aerosol in southern forests in Alabama, as part of the Southern Atmosphere Study (previously named SOAS) in the summer of 2013. The Amazon site is complimentary to the Alabama site, with critical differences. These differences allow this work to be applicable to diverse ecosystems and socio-economic regions. The Alabama site has high aerosol loading and large regional cooling due to aerosols, and the Amazon site has low aerosol loading in a region that is rapidly developing and undergoing substantial land use change leading to increasing anthropogenic emissions. The project will result in the first chemically speciated in situ measurements in the Amazon of oxidation products from biogenic volatile organic compounds. The effort will contribute to a better understanding of climate change and air quality issues. This project contributes to a larger study, GOAMAZON-2014, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.