Monoterpenes are the largest source of summertime organic aerosol in the southeastern United States

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1717513115
• Publication Date: 2018-02-12T20:26:03Z
• Authors: Haofei Zhang; Lindsay D. Yee; Ben H. Lee; Michael P. Curtis; David R. Worton; Gabriel Isaacman-...; John H. Offenberg; Michael Lewandowski; Tadeusz E. Kleind...; Melinda R. Beaver; Amara L. Holder; William A. Lonneman; Kenneth S. Docherty; Mohammed Jaoui; Havala O. T. Pye; Weiwei Hu; Douglas A. Day; Pedro Campuzano-Jost; Jose L. Jimenez; Hongyu Guo; Rodney J. Weber; Joost de Gouw; Abigail R. Koss; Eric S. Edgerton; William Brune; Claudia Mohr; Felipe D. Lopez-H...; Anna Lutz; Nathan M. Kreisberg; Steve R. Spielman; Susanne V. Hering; Kevin R. Wilson; Joel A. Thornton; Allen H. Goldstein
• Keywords: Monoterpene

Significance Atmospheric fine organic aerosol impacts air quality, climate, and human health. Speciating quantifying the sources of on molecular level improves understanding their formation chemistry hence resulting impacts. Such study, however, has not been possible due to chemical complexity atmospheric aerosol. Here, we provide comprehensive characterization samples from southeastern United States by combining state-of-the-art high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques. We find that monoterpene secondary accounts for approximately half total More importantly, increases with enhanced nitrogen oxide processing, indicating anthropogenic influence biogenic formation.