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Abstract Ammonia (NH3) from animal feeding operations (AFOs) is an important source of reactive nitrogen in the US, but despite its ramifications for air quality and ecosystem health, its near‐source evolution remains understudied. To this end, Phase I of the Transport and Transformation of Ammonia (TRANS2Am) field campaign was conducted in the northeastern Colorado Front Range in summer 2021 and characterized atmospheric composition downwind of AFOs during 10 research flights. Airborne measurements of NH3, nitric acid (HNO3), and a suite of water‐soluble aerosol species collected onboard the University of Wyoming King Air research aircraft present an opportunity to investigate the sensitivity of particulate matter (PM) formation to AFO emissions. We couple the observations with thermodynamic modeling to predict the seasonality of ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) formation. We find that during TRANS2Am northeastern Colorado is consistently in the NH3‐rich and HNO3‐limited NH4NO3formation regime. Further investigation using the Extended Aerosol Inorganics Model reveals that summertime temperatures (mean: 23°C) of northeastern Colorado, especially near the surface, inhibit NH4NO3formation despite high NH3concentrations (max: ≤114 ppbv). Finally, we model spring/autumn and winter conditions to explore the seasonality of NH4NO3formation and find that cooler temperatures could support substantially more NH4NO3formation. Whereas NH4NO3only exceeds 1 μg m−3∼10% of the time in summer, modeled NH4NO3would exceed 1 μg m−361% (88%) of the time in spring/autumn (winter), with a 10°C (20°C) temperature decrease relative to the campaign.
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Comparison of Airborne Reactive Nitrogen Measurements During WINTER
Abstract We present a comparison of instruments measuring nitrogen oxide species from an aircraft during the 2015 Wintertime INvestigation of Transport, Emissions, and Reactivity (WINTER) campaign over the northeast United States. Instrument techniques compared here include chemiluminescence (CL), thermal dissociation laser‐induced fluorescence (TD‐LIF), cavity ring‐down spectroscopy (CRDS), high‐resolution time of flight, iodide‐adduct chemical ionization mass spectrometry (I‐CIMS), and aerosol mass spectrometry. Species investigated include NO2, NO, total nitrogen oxides (NOy), N2O5, ClNO2, and HNO3. Particulate‐phase nitrate is also included for comparisons of HNO3and NOy. Instruments generally agreed within reported uncertainties, with individual flights sometimes showing much better agreement than the data set taken as a whole, due to flight‐to‐flight slope changes. NO measured by CRDS and CL showed an average relative slope of 1.16 ± 0.01 across all flights, which is outside of combined uncertainties. The source of the error was not identified. For NO2measured by CRDS and TD‐LIF the average was 1.02 ± 0.00; for NOymeasured by CRDS and CL the average was 1.01 ± 0.00; and for N2O5measured by CRDS and I‐CIMS the average was 0.89 ± 0.01. NOybudget closure to within 20% is demonstrated. We observe nonlinearity in NO2and NOycorrelations at concentrations above ~30 ppbv that may be related to the NO discrepancy noted above. For ClNO2there were significant differences between I‐CIMS and TD‐LIF, potentially due in part to the temperature used for thermal dissociation. Although the fraction of particulate nitrate measured by the TD‐LIF is not well characterized, it improves comparisons to include particulate measurements.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1822664
- PAR ID:
- 10375356
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Volume:
- 124
- Issue:
- 19
- ISSN:
- 2169-897X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 10483-10502
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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