The Fires, Asian, and Stratospheric Transport-Las Vegas Ozone Study (FAST-LVOS)

The Fires, Asian, and Stratospheric Transport&ndash;Las Vegas Ozone Study (FAST-LVOS) was conducted in May and June of 2017 to study the transport of ozone (O3) to Clark County, Nevada, a marginal non-attainment area in the southwestern United States (SWUS). This 6-week (20&nbsp;May&ndash;30&nbsp;June 2017) field campaign used lidar, ozonesonde, aircraft, and in situ measurements in conjunction with a variety of models to characterize the distribution of O3 and related species above southern Nevada and neighboring California and to probe the influence of stratospheric intrusions and wildfires as well as local, regional, and Asian pollution on surface O3 concentrations in the Las Vegas Valley (&asymp;&thinsp;900&thinsp;m above sea level, a.s.l.). In this paper, we describe the FAST-LVOS campaign and present case studies illustrating the influence of different transport processes on background O3 in Clark County and southern Nevada. The companion paper by Zhang et al.&nbsp;(2020) describes the use of the AM4 and GEOS-Chem global models to simulate the measurements and estimate the impacts of transported O3 on surface air quality across the greater southwestern US and Intermountain West. The FAST-LVOS measurements found elevated O3 layers above Las Vegas on more than 75&thinsp;% (35 of 45) of the sample days and show that entrainment of these layers contributed to mean 8&thinsp;h average regional background O3 concentrations of 50&ndash;55 parts per billion by volume (ppbv), or about 85&ndash;95&thinsp;&micro;g&thinsp;m&minus;3. These high background concentrations constitute 70&thinsp;%&ndash;80&thinsp;% of the current US National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) of 70&thinsp;ppbv (&asymp;&thinsp;120&thinsp;&micro;g&thinsp;m&minus;3 at 900&thinsp;m&thinsp;a.s.l.) for the daily maximum 8&thinsp;h average (MDA8) and will make attainment of the more stringent standards of 60 or 65&thinsp;ppbv currently being considered extremely difficult in the interior SWUS. &nbsp;</p

Emissions of nitrogen-containing organic compounds from the burning of herbaceous and arboraceous biomass: Fuel composition dependence and the variability of commonly used nitrile tracers

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from residential wood and crop residue burning were measured in Colorado, U.S. When compared to the emissions from crop burning, residential wood burning exhibited markedly lower concentrations of acetonitrile, a commonly used biomass burning tracer. For both herbaceous and arboraceous fuels, the emissions of nitrogen-containing VOCs (NVOCs) strongly depend on the fuel nitrogen content; therefore, low NVOC emissions from residential wood burning result from the combustion of low-nitrogen fuel. Consequently, the emissions of compounds hazardous to human health, such as HNCO and HCN, and the formation of secondary pollutants, such as ozone generated by NOx, are likely to depend on fuel nitrogen. These results also demonstrate that acetonitrile may not be a suitable tracer for domestic burning in urban areas. Wood burning emissions may be best identified through analysis of the emissions profile rather than reliance on a single tracer species

An improved, automated whole air sampler and gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis system for volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere

Volatile organic compounds were quantified during two aircraft-based field campaigns using highly automated, whole air samplers with expedited post-flight analysis via a new custom-built, field-deployable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry instrument. During flight, air samples were pressurized with a stainless steel bellows compressor into electropolished stainless steel canisters. The air samples were analyzed using a novel gas chromatograph system designed specifically for field use which eliminates the need for liquid nitrogen. Instead, a Stirling cooler is used for cryogenic sample pre-concentration at temperatures as low as 165 degrees C. The analysis system was fully automated on a 20 min cycle to allow for unattended processing of an entire flight of 72 sample canisters within 30 h, thereby reducing typical sample residence times in the canisters to less than 3 days. The new analytical system is capable of quantifying a wide suite of C2 to C10 organic compounds at part-per-trillion sensitivity. This paper describes the sampling and analysis systems, along with the data analysis procedures which include a new peak-fitting software package for rapid chromatographic data reduction. Instrument sensitivities, uncertainties and system artifacts are presented for 35 trace gas species in canister samples. Comparisons of reported mixing ratios from each field campaign with measurements from other instruments are also presented.</p

Global-scale distribution of ozone in the remote troposphere from the ATom and HIPPO airborne field missions

Ozone is a key constituent of the troposphere, where it drives photochemical processes, impacts air quality, and acts as a climate forcer. Large-scale in&nbsp;situ observations of ozone commensurate with the grid resolution of current Earth system models are necessary to validate model outputs and satellite retrievals. In this paper, we examine measurements from the Atmospheric Tomography (ATom; four&nbsp;deployments in 2016&ndash;2018) and the HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations (HIPPO; five&nbsp;deployments in 2009&ndash;2011) experiments, two global-scale airborne campaigns covering the Pacific and Atlantic basins. ATom and HIPPO represent the first global-scale, vertically resolved measurements of O3 distributions throughout the troposphere, with HIPPO sampling the atmosphere over the Pacific and ATom sampling both the Pacific and Atlantic. Given the relatively limited temporal resolution of these two campaigns, we first compare ATom and HIPPO ozone data to longer-term observational records to establish the representativeness of our dataset. We show that these two airborne campaigns captured on average 53&thinsp;%, 54&thinsp;%, and 38&thinsp;% of the ozone variability in the marine boundary layer, free troposphere, and upper troposphere&ndash;lower stratosphere (UTLS), respectively, at nine well-established ozonesonde sites. Additionally, ATom captured the most frequent ozone concentrations measured by regular commercial aircraft flights in the northern Atlantic UTLS. We then use the repeated vertical profiles from these two campaigns to confirm and extend the existing knowledge of tropospheric ozone spatial and vertical distributions throughout the remote troposphere. We highlight a clear hemispheric gradient, with greater ozone in the Northern Hemisphere, consistent with greater precursor emissions and consistent with previous modeling and satellite studies. We also show that the ozone distribution below 8&thinsp;km was similar in the extra-tropics of the Atlantic and Pacific basins, likely due to zonal circulation patterns. However, twice as much ozone was found in the tropical Atlantic as in the tropical Pacific, due to well-documented dynamical patterns transporting continental air masses over the Atlantic. Finally, we show that the seasonal variability of tropospheric ozone over the Pacific and the Atlantic basins is driven year-round by transported continental plumes and photochemistry, and the vertical distribution is driven by photochemistry and mixing with stratospheric air. This new dataset provides additional constraints for global climate and chemistry models to improve our understanding of both ozone production and loss processes in remote regions, as well as the influence of anthropogenic emissions on baseline ozone. </div

Volatile organic compound emissions from solvent- and water-borne coatings – compositional differences and tracer compound identifications

The emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from volatile chemical products (VCPs) – specifically personal care products, cleaning agents, coatings, adhesives, and pesticides – are emerging as the largest source of petroleum-derived organic carbon in US cities. Previous work has shown that the ambient concentration of markers for most VCP categories correlates strongly with population density, except for VOCs predominantly originating from solvent- and water-borne coatings (e.g., parachlorobenzotrifluoride (PCBTF) and Texanol®, respectively). Instead, these enhancements were dominated by distinct emission events likely driven by industrial usage patterns, such as construction activity. In this work, the headspace of a variety of coating products was analyzed using a proton-transfer-reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometer (PTR-ToF-MS) and a gas chromatography (GC) preseparation front end to identify composition differences for various coating types (e.g., paints, primers, sealers, and stains). Evaporation experiments of several products showed high initial VOC emission rates, and for the length of these experiments, the majority of the VOC mass was emitted during the first few hours following application. The percentage of mass emitted as measured VOCs (<1 % to 83 %) mirrored the VOC content reported by the manufacturer (<5 to 550 g L−1). Ambient and laboratory measurements, usage trends, and ingredients compiled from architectural coatings surveys show that both PCBTF and Texanol account for ∼10 % of the total VOC ingredient sales and, therefore, can be useful tracers for solvent- and water-borne coatings