Novel Analysis to Quantify Plume Crosswind Heterogeneity Applied to Biomass Burning Smoke

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c03803
• Publication Date: 2021-11-24T21:15:13Z
• Authors: Zachary C. J. Decker; Siyuan Wang; Ilann Bourgeois; Pedro Campuzano Jost; Matthew M. Coggon; Joshua P. DiGangi; Glenn S. Diskin; Frank M. Flocke; Alessandro Franchin; Carley D. Fredric...; Georgios I. Gkatz...; Samuel R. Hall; Hannah Halliday; Katherine Hayden; Christopher D. Ho...; L. Gregory Huey; Jose L. Jimenez; Young Ro Lee; Jakob Lindaas; Ann M. Middlebrook; Denise D. Montzka; J. Andrew Neuman; John B. Nowak; Demetrios Pagonis; Brett B. Palm; Jeff Peischl; Felix Piel; Pamela S. Rickly; Michael A. Robinson; Andrew W. Rollins; Thomas B. Ryerson; Kanako Sekimoto; Joel A. Thornton; Geoff S. Tyndall; Kirk Ullmann; Patrick R. Veres; Carsten Warneke; Rebecca A. Washen...; Andrew J. Weinheimer; Armin Wisthaler; Caroline Womack; Steven S. Brown
• Keywords: Crosswind; TRACER

We present a novel method, the Gaussian observational model for edge to center heterogeneity (GOMECH), quantify horizontal chemical structure of plumes. GOMECH fits observations short-lived emissions or products against long-lived tracer (e.g., CO) provide relative metrics plume width (wi/wCO) and (bi/wCO). To validate GOMECH, we investigate OH NO3 oxidation processes in smoke plumes sampled during FIREX-AQ (Fire Influence on Regional Global Environments Air Quality, 2019 wildfire study). An analysis 430 crosswind transects demonstrates that nitrous acid (HONO), primary source OH, is narrower than CO (wHONO/wCO = 0.73–0.84 ± 0.01) maleic anhydride (an product) enhanced edges (wmaleicanhydride/wCO 1.06–1.12 0.01). By contrast, production [P(NO3)] occurs mainly at (wP(NO3)/wCO 0.91–1.00 Phenolic emissions, highly reactive NO3, are (wphenol/wCO 0.96 0.03, wcatechol/wCO 0.91 0.01, wmethylcatechol/wCO 0.84 0.01), suggesting phenolic losses greatest. Yet, nitrophenolic aerosol, their product, greatest (wnitrophenolicaerosol/wCO 0.95 0.02). In large case study, suggests nitrocatechol aerosol most associated with P(NO3). Last, corroborate eddy simulation which (55%) produced through our study.