Wildfire Smoke Influence on Cloud Water Chemical Composition at Whiteface Mountain, New York.

Wildfires significantly impact air quality and climate, including through the production of aerosols that can nucleate cloud droplets and participate in aqueous-phase reactions. Cloud water was collected during the summer months (June-September) of 2010-2017 at Whiteface Mountain, New York and examined for biomass burning influence. Cloud water samples were classified by their smoke influence based on backward air mass trajectories and satellite-detected smoke.

Emerging investigator series: heterogeneous OH oxidation of primary brown carbon aerosol: effects of relative humidity and volatility.

The climate forcing of light-absorbing organic aerosol, or brown carbon (BrC), emitted from biomass burning may be significant but is currently poorly constrained, in part due to evolution during its residence time in the atmosphere. Here, the effects of ambient relative humidity (RH) and particle volatility on the heterogeneous OH oxidation of primary BrC were investigated in laboratory experiments. Particles were generated from smoldering pine wood, isolated from gaseous emissions, conditioned at 200 °C in a thermal denuder to remove the most volatile particulate organics, and injected into a smog chamber, where they were conditioned at either 15 or 60% RH and exposed to gas phase OH radicals.

Quantitation of amino sugar stereoisomer and muramic acid biomarkers by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A rapid separation and quantitation of the stereoisomer amino sugars glucosamine, galactosamine, and mannosamine, along with muramic acid, is needed. These compounds, when their quantities are accurate, can be used to understand the origin and fate of natural organic matter (NOM) in the environment. These target molecules are biomarkers of fungi and bacteria and allow the deconvolution of microbial transformations and degradation of NOM in a wide variety of environmental matrices.

Sources of isocyanic acid (HNCO) indoors: a focus on cigarette smoke.

The sources and sinks of isocyanic acid (HNCO), a toxic gas, in indoor environments are largely uncharacterized. In particular, cigarette smoke has been identified as a significant source. In this study, controlled smoking of tobacco cigarettes was investigated in both an environmental chamber and a residence in Toronto, Canada using an acetate-CIMS.

Evidence for Gas-Surface Equilibrium Control of Indoor Nitrous Acid.

Nitrous acid (HONO) is an important component of indoor air as a photolabile precursor to hydroxyl radicals and has direct health effects. HONO concentrations are typically higher indoors than outdoors, although indoor concentrations have proved challenging to predict using box models. In this study, time-resolved measurements of HONO and NO in a residence showed that [HONO] varied relatively weakly over contiguous periods of hours, while [NO] fluctuated in association with changes in outdoor [NO].