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Emissions of Trace Organic Gases From Western U.S. Wildfires Based on WE‐CAN Aircraft Measurements
Author(s) -
Permar Wade,
Wang Qian,
Selimovic Vanessa,
Wielgasz Catherine,
Yokelson Robert J.,
Hornbrook Rebecca S.,
Hills Alan J.,
Apel Eric C.,
Ku ITing,
Zhou Yong,
Sive Barkley C.,
Sullivan Amy P.,
Collett Jeffrey L.,
Campos Teresa L.,
Palm Brett B.,
Peng Qiaoyun,
Thornton Joel A.,
Garofalo Lauren A.,
Farmer Delphine K.,
Kreidenweis Sonia M.,
Levin Ezra J. T.,
DeMott Paul J.,
Flocke Frank,
Fischer Emily V.,
Hu Lu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-8996
pISSN - 2169-897X
DOI - 10.1029/2020jd033838
Subject(s) - trace gas , environmental chemistry , atmospheric sciences , volatile organic compound , environmental science , aerosol , plume , combustion , chemistry , mass spectrometry , transect , meteorology , physics , oceanography , organic chemistry , chromatography , geology
We present emission measurements of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for western U.S. wildland fires made on the NSF/NCAR C‐130 research aircraft during the Western Wildfire Experiment for Cloud Chemistry, Aerosol Absorption, and Nitrogen (WE‐CAN) field campaign in summer 2018. VOCs were measured with complementary instruments onboard the C‐130, including a proton‐transfer‐reaction time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer (PTR‐ToF‐MS) and two gas chromatography (GC)‐based methods. Agreement within combined instrument uncertainties (<60%) was observed for most co‐measured VOCs. GC‐based measurements speciated the isomeric contributions to selected PTR‐ToF‐MS ion masses and generally showed little fire‐to‐fire variation. We report emission ratios (ERs) and emission factors (EFs) for 161 VOCs measured in 31 near‐fire smoke plume transects of 24 specific individual fires sampled in the afternoon when burning conditions are typically most active. Modified combustion efficiency (MCE) ranged from 0.85 to 0.94. The measured campaign‐average total VOC EF was 26.1 ± 6.9 g kg −1 , approximately 67% of which is accounted for by oxygenated VOCs. The 10 most abundantly emitted species contributed more than half of the total measured VOC mass. We found that MCE alone explained nearly 70% of the observed variance for total measured VOC emissions ( r 2 = 0.67) and >50% for 57 individual VOC EFs representing more than half the organic carbon mass. Finally, we found little fire‐to‐fire variability for the mass fraction contributions of individual species to the total measured VOC emissions, suggesting that a single speciation profile can describe VOC emissions for the wildfires in coniferous ecosystems sampled during WE‐CAN.