An updated modeling framework to simulate Los Angeles air quality - Part 1: Model development, evaluation, and source apportionment.

This study describes a modeling framework, model evaluation, and source apportionment to understand the causes of Los Angeles (LA) air pollution. A few major updates are applied to the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with a high spatial resolution (1 km × 1 km). The updates include dynamic traffic emissions based on real-time, on-road information and recent emission factors and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) schemes to represent volatile chemical products (VCPs).

Correction to Brown Carbon from Photo-Oxidation of Glyoxal and SO in Aqueous Aerosol.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1021/acsearthspacechem.3c00035.

Brown Carbon from Photo-Oxidation of Glyoxal and SO in Aqueous Aerosol.

Aqueous-phase dark reactions during the co-oxidation of glyoxal and S(IV) were recently identified as a potential source of brown carbon (BrC). Here, we explore the effects of sunlight and oxidants on aqueous solutions of glyoxal and S(IV), and on aqueous aerosol exposed to glyoxal and SO. We find that BrC is able to form in sunlit, bulk-phase, sulfite-containing solutions, albeit more slowly than in the dark.

Kinetics, Products, and Brown Carbon Formation by Aqueous-Phase Reactions of Glycolaldehyde with Atmospheric Amines and Ammonium Sulfate.

Glycolaldehyde (GAld) is a C water-soluble aldehyde produced during the atmospheric oxidation of isoprene and many other species and is commonly found in cloudwater. Previous work has established that glycolaldehyde evaporates more readily from drying aerosol droplets containing ammonium sulfate (AS) than does glyoxal, methylglyoxal, or hydroxyacetone, which implies that it does not oligomerize as quickly as these other species. Here, we report NMR measurements of glycolaldehyde's aqueous-phase reactions with AS, methylamine, and glycine.

Modeling secondary organic aerosol formation from volatile chemical products.

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) are commonly-used consumer and industrial items that are an important source of anthropogenic emissions. Organic compounds from VCPs evaporate on atmospherically relevant time scales and include many species that are secondary organic aerosol (SOA) precursors. However, the chemistry leading to SOA, particularly that of intermediate volatility organic compounds (IVOCs), has not been fully represented in regional-scale models such as the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, which tend to underpredict SOA concentrations in urban areas.

Volatile Chemical Product Enhancements to Criteria Pollutants in the United States.

Volatile chemical products (VCPs) are a significant source of reactive organic carbon emissions in the United States with a substantial fraction (>20% by mass) serving as secondary organic aerosol (SOA) precursors. Here, we incorporate a new nationwide VCP inventory into the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model with VCP-specific updates to better model air quality impacts. Model results indicate that VCPs mostly enhance anthropogenic SOA in densely populated areas with population-weighted annual average SOA increasing 15-30% in Southern California and New York City due to VCP emissions (contribution of 0.

From COVID-19 to future electrification: Assessing traffic impacts on air quality by a machine-learning model.

The large fluctuations in traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic provide an unparalleled opportunity to assess vehicle emission control efficacy. Here we develop a random-forest regression model, based on the large volume of real-time observational data during COVID-19, to predict surface-level NO, O, and fine particle concentration in the Los Angeles megacity. Our model exhibits high fidelity in reproducing pollutant concentrations in the Los Angeles Basin and identifies major factors controlling each species.

Brown Carbon Production in Ammonium- or Amine-Containing Aerosol Particles by Reactive Uptake of Methylglyoxal and Photolytic Cloud Cycling.

The effects of methylglyoxal uptake on the physical and optical properties of aerosol containing amines or ammonium sulfate were determined before and after cloud processing in a temperature- and RH-controlled chamber. The formation of brown carbon was observed upon methylglyoxal addition, detected as an increase in water-soluble organic carbon mass absorption coefficients below 370 nm and as a drop in single-scattering albedo at 450 nm. The imaginary refractive index component k reached a maximum value of 0.