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Direct Measurements of Dry and Wet Deposition of Black Carbon Over a Grassland
Author(s) -
Emerson Ethan W.,
Katich Joseph M.,
Schwarz Joshua P.,
McMeeking Gavin R.,
Farmer Delphine K.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2018jd028954
Subject(s) - deposition (geology) , eddy covariance , flux (metallurgy) , atmosphere (unit) , carbon black , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , soot , carbon fibers , chemistry , meteorology , materials science , geology , ecosystem , geography , composite number , structural basin , paleontology , ecology , natural rubber , organic chemistry , composite material , biology , combustion
The atmospheric lifetime of black carbon (BC) is controlled by wet and dry deposition, which are poorly constrained by observations. We show that the single‐particle soot photometer can measure surface‐atmosphere exchange fluxes of refractory BC (rBC) particle mass ( m rBC ) and number ( N rBC ) by eddy covariance. We report field measurements of rBC dry and wet deposition rates during summer 2017 at the Southern Great Plains site in Oklahoma. On average, dry deposition of rBC is 0.3 ± 0.2 mm/s. We estimate a wet deposition flux of 2,600 ng·m −2 ·hr −1 over the 148.5 mm of rainfall observed. These data indicate a composite lifetime of 7–11 days.