A large organic aerosol source in the free troposphere missing from current models

Details A large organic aerosol source in the free troposphere missing from current models A large organic aerosol source in the free troposphere missing from current models

Sep 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005georl..3218809h&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 32, Issue 18, CiteID L18809

Physics

165

Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801, 4906), Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Troposphere: Composition And Chemistry, Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Troposphere: Constituent Transport And Chemistry, Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Radiation: Transmission And Scattering, Geographic Location: Asia

Scientific paper

Aircraft measurements of organic carbon (OC) aerosol by two independent methods over the NW Pacific during the ACE-Asia campaign reveal unexpectedly high concentrations in the free troposphere (FT). Concentrations average 4 μg sm-3 in the 2-6.5 km column with little vertical gradient. These values are 10-100 times higher than computed with a global chemical transport model (CTM) including a standard 2-product simulation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation based on empirical fits to smog chamber data. The same CTM reproduces the observed vertical profiles of sulfate and elemental carbon aerosols, which indicate sharp decreases from the boundary layer to the FT due to wet scavenging. Our results suggest a large, sustained source of SOA in the FT from oxidation of long-lived volatile organic compounds. We find that this SOA is the dominant component of aerosol mass in the FT, with implications for intercontinental pollution transport and radiative forcing of climate.

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