Brown carbon and internal mixing in biomass burning particles

Brown carbon and internal mixing in biomass burning particles.

Biomass burning (BB) contributes large amounts of black carbon (BC) and particulate organic matter (POM) to the atmosphere and contributes significantly to the earth's radiation balance. BB particles can be a complicated optical system, with scattering and absorption contributions from BC, internal mixtures of BC and POM, and wavelength-dependent absorption of POM. Large amounts of POM can also...

Molecular Characterization of Brown Carbon in Biomass Burning Aerosol Particles.

Emissions from biomass burning are a significant source of brown carbon (BrC) in the atmosphere. In this study, we investigate the molecular composition of freshly emitted biomass burning organic aerosol (BBOA) samples collected during test burns of sawgrass, peat, ponderosa pine, and black spruce. We demonstrate that both the BrC absorption and the chemical composition of light-absorbing compo...

Carbon Emissions from Biomass Burning

Absorptivity of brown carbon in fresh and photo-chemically aged biomass-burning emissions

Experiments were conducted to investigate light absorption of organic aerosol (OA) in fresh and photochemically aged biomass-burning emissions. The experiments considered residential hardwood fuel (oak) and fuels commonly consumed in wild-land and prescribed fires in the United States (pocosin pine and gallberry). Photochemical aging was performed in an environmental chamber. We constrained the...

Speciation of “brown” carbon in cloud water impacted by agricultural biomass burning in eastern China

[1] Despite growing interest in the visible light-absorbing organic component of atmospheric aerosols, referred to as “brown” carbon, our knowledge of its chemical composition remains limited. It is well accepted that biomass burning is one important source of “brown” carbon in the atmosphere. In this study, cloud water samples heavily affected by biomass burning were collected at Mount Tai (15...