Articles | Volume 15, issue 14
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7841-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7841-2015
Research article
 | 
16 Jul 2015
Research article |  | 16 Jul 2015

Brown carbon aerosol in the North American continental troposphere: sources, abundance, and radiative forcing

J. Liu, E. Scheuer, J. Dibb, G. S. Diskin, L. D. Ziemba, K. L. Thornhill, B. E. Anderson, A. Wisthaler, T. Mikoviny, J. J. Devi, M. Bergin, A. E. Perring, M. Z. Markovic, J. P. Schwarz, P. Campuzano-Jost, D. A. Day, J. L. Jimenez, and R. J. Weber

Related authors

Measurement report: Diurnal variations of brown carbon during two distinct seasons in a megacity in northeast China
Yuan Cheng, Xu-bing Cao, Jiu-meng Liu, Ying-jie Zhong, Qin-qin Yu, Qiang Zhang, and Ke-bin He
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 6241–6253, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6241-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-6241-2023, 2023
Short summary
Using aircraft measurements to characterize subgrid-scale variability of aerosol properties near the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains site
Jerome D. Fast, David M. Bell, Gourihar Kulkarni, Jiumeng Liu, Fan Mei, Georges Saliba, John E. Shilling, Kaitlyn Suski, Jason Tomlinson, Jian Wang, Rahul Zaveri, and Alla Zelenyuk
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 11217–11238, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11217-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-11217-2022, 2022
Short summary
Dramatic changes in Harbin aerosol during 2018–2020: the roles of open burning policy and secondary aerosol formation
Yuan Cheng, Qin-qin Yu, Jiu-meng Liu, Xu-bing Cao, Ying-jie Zhong, Zhen-yu Du, Lin-lin Liang, Guan-nan Geng, Wan-li Ma, Hong Qi, Qiang Zhang, and Ke-bin He
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15199–15211, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15199-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15199-2021, 2021
Short summary
Aircraft measurements of aerosol and trace gas chemistry in the eastern North Atlantic
Maria A. Zawadowicz, Kaitlyn Suski, Jiumeng Liu, Mikhail Pekour, Jerome Fast, Fan Mei, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Stephen Springston, Yang Wang, Rahul A. Zaveri, Robert Wood, Jian Wang, and John E. Shilling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 7983–8002, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-7983-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-7983-2021, 2021
Short summary
Aerosol characteristics at the Southern Great Plains site during the HI-SCALE campaign
Jiumeng Liu, Liz Alexander, Jerome D. Fast, Rodica Lindenmaier, and John E. Shilling
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5101–5116, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5101-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5101-2021, 2021
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Aerosols | Research Activity: Field Measurements | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
The radiative impact of biomass burning aerosols on dust emissions over Namibia and the long-range transport of smoke observed during the Aerosols, Radiation and Clouds in southern Africa (AEROCLO-sA) campaign
Cyrille Flamant, Jean-Pierre Chaboureau, Marco Gaetani, Kerstin Schepanski, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4265–4288, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4265-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4265-2024, 2024
Short summary
Extending the wind profile beyond the surface layer by combining physical and machine learning approaches
Boming Liu, Xin Ma, Jianping Guo, Renqiang Wen, Hui Li, Shikuan Jin, Yingying Ma, Xiaoran Guo, and Wei Gong
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4047–4063, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4047-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4047-2024, 2024
Short summary
Amazonian aerosol size distributions in a lognormal phase space: characteristics and trajectories
Gabriela R. Unfer, Luiz A. T. Machado, Paulo Artaxo, Marco A. Franco, Leslie A. Kremper, Mira L. Pöhlker, Ulrich Pöschl, and Christopher Pöhlker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3869–3882, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3869-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3869-2024, 2024
Short summary
Measurement report: Hygroscopicity of size-selected aerosol particles in the heavily polluted urban atmosphere of Delhi: impacts of chloride aerosol
Anil Kumar Mandariya, Ajit Ahlawat, Mohammed Haneef, Nisar Ali Baig, Kanan Patel, Joshua Apte, Lea Hildebrandt Ruiz, Alfred Wiedensohler, and Gazala Habib
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3627–3647, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3627-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3627-2024, 2024
Short summary
An observation-constrained estimation of brown carbon aerosol direct radiative effects
Yueyue Cheng, Chao Liu, Jiandong Wang, Jiaping Wang, Zhouyang Zhang, Li Chen, Dafeng Ge, Caijun Zhu, Jinbo Wang, and Aijun Ding
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3065–3078, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3065-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3065-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Andreae, M. O. and Gelencsér, A.: Black carbon or brown carbon? The nature of light-absorbing carbonaceous aerosols, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 6, 3131–3148, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-6-3131-2006, 2006.
Bahadur, R., Praveen, P. S., Xu, Y. Y., and Ramanathan, V.: Solar absorption by elemental and brown carbon determined from spectral observations, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 109, 17366–17371, 2012.
Bahreini, R., Dunlea, E. J., Matthew, B. M., Simons, C., Docherty, K. S., DeCarlo, P. F., Jimenez, J. L., Brock, C. A., and Middlebrook, A. M.: Design and Operation of a Pressure-Controlled Inlet for Airborne Sampling with an Aerodynamic Aerosol Lens, Aerosol Sci. Tech., 42, 465–471, https://doi.org/10.1080/02786820802178514, 2008.
Download
Short summary
Brown carbon (BrC) is found throughout the US continental troposphere during a summer of extensive biomass burning and its prevalence relative to black carbon (BC) increases with altitude. A radiative transfer model based on direct measurements of aerosol scattering and absorption by BC and BrC shows BrC reduces top-of-atmosphere forcing by 20%. A method to estimate BrC radiative forcing efficiencies from surface-based measurements is provided.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint