Overview of ICARUS-A Curated, Open Access, Online Repository for Atmospheric Simulation Chamber Data

Atmospheric simulation chambers continue to be indispensable tools for research in the atmospheric sciences. Insights from chamber studies are integrated into atmospheric chemical transport models, which are used for science-informed policy decisions. However, a centralized data management and access infrastructure for their scientific products had not been available in the United States and many parts of the world. ICARUS (Integrated Chamber Atmospheric data Repository for Unified Science) is an open access, searchable, web-based infrastructure for storing, sharing, discovering, and utilizing atmospheric chamber data [https://icarus.ucdavis.edu]. ICARUS has two parts: a data intake portal and a search and discovery portal. Data in ICARUS are curated, uniform, interactive, indexed on popular search engines, mirrored by other repositories, version-tracked, vocabulary-controlled, and citable. ICARUS hosts both legacy data and new data in compliance with open access data mandates. Targeted data discovery is available based on key experimental parameters, including organic reactants and mixtures that are managed using the PubChem chemical database, oxidant information, nitrogen oxide (NOx) content, alkylperoxy radical (RO₂) fate, seed particle information, environmental conditions, and reaction categories. A discipline-specific repository such as ICARUS with high amounts of metadata works to support the evaluation and revision of atmospheric model mechanisms, intercomparison of data and models, and the development of new model frameworks that can have more predictive power in the current and future atmosphere. The open accessibility and interactive nature of ICARUS data may also be useful for teaching, data mining, and training machine learning models.

Atmospheric Fate of a New Polyfluoroalkyl Building Block, C3F7OCHFCF2SCH2CH2OH

Many per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been regulated or phased-out of usage due to concerns about persistence, bioaccumulation potential, and toxicity. We investigated the atmospheric fate of a new polyfluorinated alcohol 2-(1,1,2-trifluoro-2-heptafluoropropyloxy-ethylsulfanyl)-ethanol (C₃F₇OCHFCF₂SCH₂CH₂OH, abbreviated FESOH) by assessing the kinetics and products of the gas-phase reaction of FESOH with chlorine atoms and hydroxyl radicals. Experiments performed in a stainless-steel chamber interfaced to an FTIR were used to determine reaction kinetics and gas-phase products. We report reaction rate constants of k(Cl + FESOH) = (1.5 ± 0.6) × 10^-11 cm³ molecule^-1 s^-1 and k(OH + FESOH) = (4.2 ± 2.0) × 10^-12 cm³ molecule^-1 s^-1. This leads to a calculated FESOH gas-phase lifetime of 2.8 ± 1.3 days with respect to reaction with OH, assuming [OH] = 10⁶ molecule¹ cm^-3. Gas-phase products of FESOH oxidation included at least two aldehydes, likely C₃F₇OCHFCF₂SCH₂C(O)H and C₃F₇OCHFCF₂SC(O)H, and secondary products including COF₂, SO₂ and C₃F₇OC(O)F. Additional gas-phase experiments performed in a Teflon chamber were used to assess aqueous products by collecting gaseous samples offline into an aqueous sink prior to analysis with ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, resulting in four acidic products: C₃F₇OCHFCF₂SCH₂C(O)OH, C₃F₇OCHFCF₂S(O)(O)OH, C₃F₇OCHFC(O)OH, and perfluoropropanoic acid (C₂F₅C(O)OH).

Variability and Time of Day Dependence of Ozone Photochemistry in Western Wildfire Plumes

Understanding the efficiency and variability of photochemical ozone (O₃) production from western wildfire plumes is important to accurately estimate their influence on North American air quality. A set of photochemical measurements were made from the NOAA Twin Otter research aircraft as a part of the Fire Influence on Regional to Global Environments and Air Quality (FIREX-AQ) experiment. We use a zero-dimensional (0-D) box model to investigate the chemistry driving O₃ production in modeled plumes. Modeled afternoon plumes reached a maximum O₃ mixing ratio of 140 ± 50 ppbv (average ± standard deviation) within 20 ± 10 min of emission compared to 76 ± 12 ppbv in 60 ± 30 min in evening plumes. Afternoon and evening maximum O₃ isopleths indicate that plumes were near their peak in NO_x efficiency. A radical budget describes the NO_x volatile - organic compound (VOC) sensitivities of these plumes. Afternoon plumes displayed a rapid transition from VOC-sensitive to NO_x-sensitive chemistry, driven by HO_x (=OH + HO₂) production from photolysis of nitrous acid (HONO) (48 ± 20% of primary HO_x) and formaldehyde (HCHO) (26 ± 9%) emitted directly from the fire. Evening plumes exhibit a slower transition from peak NO_x efficiency to VOC-sensitive O₃ production caused by a reduction in photolysis rates and fire emissions. HO_x production in evening plumes is controlled by HONO photolysis (53 ± 7%), HCHO photolysis (18 ± 9%), and alkene ozonolysis (17 ± 9%).

Bidirectional Ecosystem-Atmosphere Fluxes of Volatile Organic Compounds Across the Mass Spectrum: How Many Matter?

Terrestrial ecosystems are simultaneously the largest source and a major sink of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to the global atmosphere, and these two-way fluxes are an important source of uncertainty in current models. Here, we apply high-resolution mass spectrometry (proton transfer reaction-quadrupole interface time-of-flight; PTR-QiTOF) to measure ecosystem-atmosphere VOC fluxes across the entire detected mass range (m/z 0-335) over a mixed temperate forest and use the results to test how well a state-of-science chemical transport model (GEOS-Chem CTM) is able to represent the observed reactive carbon exchange. We show that ambient humidity fluctuations can give rise to spurious VOC fluxes with PTR-based techniques and present a method to screen for such effects. After doing so, 377 of the 636 detected ions exhibited detectable gross fluxes during the study, implying a large number of species with active ecosystem-atmosphere exchange. We introduce the reactivity flux as a measure of how Earth-atmosphere fluxes influence ambient OH reactivity and show that the upward total VOC (∑VOC) carbon and reactivity fluxes are carried by a far smaller number of species than the downward fluxes. The model underpredicts the ∑VOC carbon and reactivity fluxes by 40-60% on average. However, the observed net fluxes are dominated (90% on a carbon basis, 95% on a reactivity basis) by known VOCs explicitly included in the CTM. As a result, the largest CTM uncertainties in simulating VOC carbon and reactivity exchange for this environment are associated with known rather than unrepresented species. This conclusion pertains to the set of species detectable by PTR-TOF techniques, which likely represents the majority in terms of carbon mass and OH reactivity, but not necessarily in terms of aerosol formation potential. In the case of oxygenated VOCs, the model severely underpredicts the gross fluxes and the net exchange. Here, unrepresented VOCs play a larger role, accounting for ~30% of the carbon flux and ~50% of the reactivity flux. The resulting CTM biases, however, are still smaller than those that arise from uncertainties for known and represented compounds.

The Chemistry Climate Model ECHAM6.3-HAM2.3-MOZ1.0

The chemistry climate model ECHAM-HAMMOZ contains a detailed representation of tropospheric and stratospheric reactive chemistry and state-of-the-art parametrisations of aerorols using either a modal scheme (M7) or a bin scheme (SALSA). This article describes and evaluates the model version ECHAM6.3-HAM2.3-MOZ1.0 with a focus on the tropospheric gas-phase chemistry. A ten-year model simulation was performed to test the stability of the model and provide data for its evaluation. The comparison to observations concentrates on the year 2008 and includes total column observations of ozone (O₃) and carbon monoxide (CO) from Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) observations of temperature, nitric acid (HNO₃), chlorine monoxide (ClO), and O₃ for the evaluation of polar stratospheric processes, an ozone sonde climatology, surface ozone observations from the Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) database, and surface CO data from the Global Atmosphere Watch network. Global budgets of ozone, hydroxide (OH), nitrogen oxides (NO_x), aerosols, clouds, and radiation are analyzed and compared to the literature. ECHAM-HAMMOZ performs well in many aspects. However, in the base simulation, lightning NO_x emissions are very low, and the impact of the heterogeneous reaction of HNO₃ on dust and seasalt aerosol is too strong. Sensitivity simulations with increased lightning NOx or modified heterogeneous chemistry deteriorate the comparison with observations and yield excessively large ozone budget terms and too much OH. We hypothesize that this is an impact of potential issues with tropical convection in the ECHAM model.

The Essential Role for Laboratory Studies in Atmospheric Chemistry

Laboratory studies of atmospheric chemistry characterize the nature of atmospherically relevant processes down to the molecular level, providing fundamental information used to assess how human activities drive environmental phenomena such as climate change, urban air pollution, ecosystem health, indoor air quality, and stratospheric ozone depletion. Laboratory studies have a central role in addressing the incomplete fundamental knowledge of atmospheric chemistry. This article highlights the evolving science needs for this community and emphasizes how our knowledge is far from complete, hindering our ability to predict the future state of our atmosphere and to respond to emerging global environmental change issues. Laboratory studies provide rich opportunities to expand our understanding of the atmosphere via collaborative research with the modeling and field measurement communities, and with neighboring disciplines.

Experimentally Determined Site-Specific Reactivity of the Gas-Phase OH and Cl + i-Butanol Reactions Between 251 and 340 K

Product branching ratios for the gas-phase reactions of i-butanol, (CH₃)₂CHCH₂OH, with OH radicals (251, 294, and 340 K) and Cl atoms (294 K) were quantified in an environmental chamber study and used to interpret i-butanol site-specific reactivity. i-Butyraldehyde, acetone, acetaldehyde, and formaldehyde were observed as major stable end products in both reaction systems with carbon mass balance indistinguishable from unity. Product branching ratios for OH oxidation were found to be temperature-dependent with the α, β, and γ channels changing from 34 ± 6 to 47 ± 1%, from 58 ± 6 to 37 ± 9%, and from 8 ± 1 to 16 ± 4%, respectively, between 251 and 340 K. Recommended temperature-dependent site-specific modified Arrhenius expressions for the OH reaction rate coefficient are (cm³ molecule^-1 s^-1): k_α(T) = 8.64 × 10^-18 × T^1.91exp(666/T); k_β(T) = 5.15 × 10^-19 × T^2.04exp(1304/T); k_γ(T) = 3.20 × 10^-17 × T^1.78exp(107/T); k_OH(T) = 2.10 × 10^-18 × T²exp(-23/T), where k_Total(T) = k_α(T) + k_β(T) + k_γ(T) + k_OH(T). The expressions were constrained using the product branching ratios measured in this study and previous total phenomenological rate coefficient measurements. The site-specific expressions compare reasonably well with recent theoretical work. It is shown that use of i-butanol would result in acetone as the dominant degradation product under most atmospheric conditions.

Atmospheric fates of Criegee intermediates in the ozonolysis of isoprene

We use a large laboratory, modeling, and field dataset to investigate the isoprene + O3 reaction, with the goal of better understanding the fates of the C1 and C4 Criegee intermediates in the atmosphere. Although ozonolysis can produce several distinct Criegee intermediates, the C1 stabilized Criegee (CH2OO, 61 ± 9%) is the only one observed to react bimolecularly. We suggest that the C4 Criegees have a low stabilization fraction and propose pathways for their decomposition. Both prompt and non-prompt reactions are important in the production of OH (28% ± 5%) and formaldehyde (81% ± 16%). The yields of unimolecular products (OH, formaldehyde, methacrolein (42 ± 6%) and methyl vinyl ketone (18 ± 6%)) are fairly insensitive to water, i.e., changes in yields in response to water vapor (≤4% absolute) are within the error of the analysis. We propose a comprehensive reaction mechanism that can be incorporated into atmospheric models, which reproduces laboratory data over a wide range of relative humidities. The mechanism proposes that CH2OO + H2O (k(H2O)∼ 1 × 10(-15) cm(3) molec(-1) s(-1)) yields 73% hydroxymethyl hydroperoxide (HMHP), 6% formaldehyde + H2O2, and 21% formic acid + H2O; and CH2OO + (H2O)2 (k(H2O)2∼ 1 × 10(-12) cm(3) molec(-1) s(-1)) yields 40% HMHP, 6% formaldehyde + H2O2, and 54% formic acid + H2O. Competitive rate determinations (kSO2/k(H2O)n=1,2∼ 2.2 (±0.3) × 10(4)) and field observations suggest that water vapor is a sink for greater than 98% of CH2OO in a Southeastern US forest, even during pollution episodes ([SO2] ∼ 10 ppb). The importance of the CH2OO + (H2O)n reaction is demonstrated by high HMHP mixing ratios observed over the forest canopy. We find that CH2OO does not substantially affect the lifetime of SO2 or HCOOH in the Southeast US, e.g., CH2OO + SO2 reaction is a minor contribution (<6%) to sulfate formation. Extrapolating, these results imply that sulfate production by stabilized Criegees is likely unimportant in regions dominated by the reactivity of ozone with isoprene. In contrast, hydroperoxide, organic acid, and formaldehyde formation from isoprene ozonolysis in those areas may be significant.

Formation of Low Volatility Organic Compounds and Secondary Organic Aerosol from Isoprene Hydroxyhydroperoxide Low-NO Oxidation

Gas-phase low volatility organic compounds (LVOC), produced from oxidation of isoprene 4-hydroxy-3-hydroperoxide (4,3-ISOPOOH) under low-NO conditions, were observed during the FIXCIT chamber study. Decreases in LVOC directly correspond to appearance and growth in secondary organic aerosol (SOA) of consistent elemental composition, indicating that LVOC condense (at OA below 1 μg m(-3)). This represents the first simultaneous measurement of condensing low volatility species from isoprene oxidation in both the gas and particle phases. The SOA formation in this study is separate from previously described isoprene epoxydiol (IEPOX) uptake. Assigning all condensing LVOC signals to 4,3-ISOPOOH oxidation in the chamber study implies a wall-loss corrected non-IEPOX SOA mass yield of ∼4%. By contrast to monoterpene oxidation, in which extremely low volatility VOC (ELVOC) constitute the organic aerosol, in the isoprene system LVOC with saturation concentrations from 10(-2) to 10 μg m(-3) are the main constituents. These LVOC may be important for the growth of nanoparticles in environments with low OA concentrations. LVOC observed in the chamber were also observed in the atmosphere during SOAS-2013 in the Southeastern United States, with the expected diurnal cycle. This previously uncharacterized aerosol formation pathway could account for ∼5.0 Tg yr(-1) of SOA production, or 3.3% of global SOA.

Atmospheric chemistry of hydrazoic acid (HN3): UV absorption spectrum, HO reaction rate, and reactions of the N3 radical

Processes related to the tropospheric lifetime and fate of hydrazoic acid, HN3, have been studied. The ultraviolet absorption spectrum of HN3 is shown to possess a maximum near 262 nm with a tail extending to at least 360 nm. The photolysis quantum yield for HN3 is shown to be approximately 1 at 351 nm. Using the measured spectrum and assuming unity quantum yield throughout the actinic region, a diurnally averaged photolysis lifetime near the earth's surface of 2-3 days is estimated. Using a relative rate method, the rate coefficient for reaction of HO with HN3 was found to be (3.9 +/-0.8) x 10(-12) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1), substantially larger than the only previous measurement. The atmospheric HN3 lifetime with respect to HO oxidation is thus about 2-3 days, assuming a diurnally averaged [HO] of 10(6) molecule cm(-3). Reactions of N3, the product of the reaction of HO with HN3, were studied in an environmental chamber using an FTIR spectrometer for end-product analysis. The N3 radical reacts efficiently with NO, producing N2O with 100% yield. Reaction of N3 with NO2 appears to generate both NO and N2O, although the rate coefficient for this reaction is slower than that for reaction with NO. No evidence for reaction of N3 with CO was observed, in contrast to previous literature data. Reaction of N3 with O2 was found to be extremely slow, k < 6 x 10(-20) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1), although this upper limit does not necessarily rule out its occurrence in the atmosphere. Finally, the rate coefficient for reaction of Cl with HN3 was measured using a relative rate method, k = (1.0+/-0.2) x 10(-12) cm3 molecule(-1) s(-1).