Aerosol particles collected on aircraft flights over the northwestern Pacific region during the ACE-Asia campaign: Composition and major sources of the organic compounds

Abstract

Atmospheric particulate matter, collected over the polluted east Asia/Pacific region in spring 2001 during research flights with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) C-130 aircraft, was analyzed for different types of organic compounds using capillary gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. More than 70 organic species were detected in the aerosols and grouped into different compound classes on the basis of functional groups, including n-alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, fatty acids, dehydroabietic acid, alkanols, water-soluble sugars (including glucose, sucrose, mycose, and levoglucosan), monocarboxylic and dicarboxylic acids, urea, and phthalates. Interestingly, the water-soluble compounds (72–133 ng m–3) were found to account for 16–50% (average 34%) of the total identified compound mass (TCM). Organic compounds were further categorized into several groups to suggest their sources. Fossil fuel combustion was recognized as the most significant source for the TCM (contributing 33–80% of TCM, average 50%), followed by soil resuspension (5–25%, average 19%) and secondary oxidation products (4–15%, average 9%). In contrast, the contribution of natural sources such as terrestrial plant wax and marine lipids (fatty acids and alkanols) was relatively small (3.4% and 9.4% on average, respectively). Biomass burning was suggested to contribute only a minor portion to the TCM of the Asian aerosols during the spring season (1.4% on average based on levoglucosan). However, levoglucosan may have been hydrolyzed and/or oxidized in part during long-range transport, and therefore this value represents a lower limit. The organic compound compositions of these samples are very different from those reported for aerosol particles of the Atlantic Ocean and from the earlier data for the mid-Pacific in terms of the abundant presence of water-soluble compounds consisting of saccharides, anhydrosaccharides, and the secondary dicarboxylic acids. This study demonstrated that the organic tracer approach can be carried out on small samples acquired on aircraft and is useful to better understand the sources of organic aerosols over the Asia/Pacific region