TRACER-VOC

Understanding aerosol-deep convection interactions is an important TRACER science driver, requiring a characterization of the critical controls on aerosol properties and processes, and how those properties and processes vary spatially and temporally in the Houston area. In that environment, the atmospheric photo-oxidative chemistry that drives the evolution and transformation of aerosol properties and processes is strongly impacted by the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which have both anthropogenic (e.g., industrial, urban, transportation, biomass burning) and biogenic (e.g., marine) sources in the region. Understanding (and disentangling) the complex role of VOCs in such a heterogenous region requires high-time-resolution, speciated VOC measurements that are spatially resolved. To meet these measurement requirements, the ARM time-of-flight proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer (ToF-PTRMS) will be deployed during the TRACER intensive operational period (IOP) at the ancillary site. Such a measurement will provide not only an important spatial reference to contextualize the mobile VOC measurements of the TRACER-MAP campaign, but will also establish a baseline for the critical aerosol precursors that support several TRACER-aerosol campaigns (e.g., TRACER-CAT, TRACER-UFI, TRACER-MAP, TRACER-PFM, and TRACER-CCN).

Timeline