Articles | Volume 18, issue 15
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11289-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11289-2018
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
13 Aug 2018
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 13 Aug 2018

Formation and evolution of tar balls from northwestern US wildfires

Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Peter R. Buseck, Kouji Adachi, Timothy B. Onasch, Stephen R. Springston, and Lawrence Kleinman

Related authors

Burning conditions and transportation pathways determine biomass-burning aerosol properties in the Ascension Island marine boundary layer
Amie Dobracki, Ernie Lewis, Arthur Sedlacek III, Tyler Tatro, Maria Zawadowicz, and Paquita Zuidema
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1347,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1347, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
Large Spatiotemporal Variability in Aerosol Properties over Central Argentina during the CACTI Field Campaign
Jerome D. Fast, Adam C. Varble, Fan Mei, Mikhail Pekour, Jason Tomlinson, Alla Zelenyuk, Art J. Sedlacek III, Maria Zawadowicz, and Louisa K. Emmons
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1349,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1349, 2024
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
Biomass-burning smoke's properties and its interactions with marine stratocumulus clouds in WRF-CAM5 and southeastern Atlantic field campaigns
Calvin Howes, Pablo E. Saide, Hugh Coe, Amie Dobracki, Steffen Freitag, Jim M. Haywood, Steven G. Howell, Siddhant Gupta, Janek Uin, Mary Kacarab, Chongai Kuang, L. Ruby Leung, Athanasios Nenes, Greg M. McFarquhar, James Podolske, Jens Redemann, Arthur J. Sedlacek, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Jenny P. S. Wong, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, Yang Zhang, Jianhao Zhang, and Paquita Zuidema
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13911–13940, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13911-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13911-2023, 2023
Short summary
An attribution of the low single-scattering albedo of biomass burning aerosol over the southeastern Atlantic
Amie Dobracki, Paquita Zuidema, Steven G. Howell, Pablo Saide, Steffen Freitag, Allison C. Aiken, Sharon P. Burton, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Jens Redemann, and Robert Wood
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4775–4799, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4775-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4775-2023, 2023
Short summary
Intercomparison of airborne and surface-based measurements during the CLARIFY, ORACLES and LASIC field experiments
Paul A. Barrett, Steven J. Abel, Hugh Coe, Ian Crawford, Amie Dobracki, James Haywood, Steve Howell, Anthony Jones, Justin Langridge, Greg M. McFarquhar, Graeme J. Nott, Hannah Price, Jens Redemann, Yohei Shinozuka, Kate Szpek, Jonathan W. Taylor, Robert Wood, Huihui Wu, Paquita Zuidema, Stéphane Bauguitte, Ryan Bennett, Keith Bower, Hong Chen, Sabrina Cochrane, Michael Cotterell, Nicholas Davies, David Delene, Connor Flynn, Andrew Freedman, Steffen Freitag, Siddhant Gupta, David Noone, Timothy B. Onasch, James Podolske, Michael R. Poellot, Sebastian Schmidt, Stephen Springston, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Jamie Trembath, Alan Vance, Maria A. Zawadowicz, and Jianhao Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6329–6371, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6329-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6329-2022, 2022
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Aerosols | Research Activity: Field Measurements | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Shipborne observations of black carbon aerosols in the western Arctic Ocean during summer and autumn 2016–2020: impact of boreal fires
Yange Deng, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Kohei Ikeda, Sohiko Kameyama, Sachiko Okamoto, Jinyoung Jung, Young Jun Yoon, Eun Jin Yang, and Sung-Ho Kang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6339–6357, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6339-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6339-2024, 2024
Short summary
Attribution of aerosol particle number size distributions to main sources using an 11-year urban dataset
Máté Vörösmarty, Philip K. Hopke, and Imre Salma
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5695–5712, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5695-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5695-2024, 2024
Short summary
Contribution of fluorescent primary biological aerosol particles to low-level Arctic cloud residuals
Gabriel Pereira Freitas, Ben Kopec, Kouji Adachi, Radovan Krejci, Dominic Heslin-Rees, Karl Espen Yttri, Alun Hubbard, Jeffrey M. Welker, and Paul Zieger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5479–5494, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5479-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5479-2024, 2024
Short summary
Opinion: New directions in atmospheric research offered by research infrastructures combined with open and data-intensive science
Andreas Petzold, Ulrich Bundke, Anca Hienola, Paolo Laj, Cathrine Lund Myhre, Alex Vermeulen, Angeliki Adamaki, Werner Kutsch, Valerie Thouret, Damien Boulanger, Markus Fiebig, Markus Stocker, Zhiming Zhao, and Ari Asmi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5369–5388, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5369-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5369-2024, 2024
Short summary
Measurement report: A comparison of ground-level ice-nucleating-particle abundance and aerosol properties during autumn at contrasting marine and terrestrial locations
Elise K. Wilbourn, Larissa Lacher, Carlos Guerrero, Hemanth S. K. Vepuri, Kristina Höhler, Jens Nadolny, Aidan D. Pantoya, Ottmar Möhler, and Naruki Hiranuma
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5433–5456, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5433-2024,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5433-2024, 2024
Short summary

Cited articles

Adachi, K. and Buseck, P. B.: Atmospheric tar balls from biomass burning in Mexico, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 116, D05204, https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JD015102, 2011. 
Adachi, K., Chung, S. H., and Buseck, P. R.: Shapes of soot aerosol particles and implications for their effects on climate, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 115, D15206, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012868, 2010. 
Adachi, K., Moteki, N., Kondo, Y., and Igarashi, Y.: Mixing states of light-absorbing particles measured using a transmission electron microscope and a single-particle soot photometer in Tokyo, Japan, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 121, 9153–9164, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JD025153, 2016. 
Adachi, K., Sedlacek, A. J., Kleinman, L., Chand, D., Hubbe, J., and Buseck, P. R.: Thermal behavior of aerosol particles from biomass burning using a transmission electron microscope, Aerosol Sci. Tech., 52, 46–56, https://doi.org/10.1080/02786826.2017.1373181, 2017. 
Alexander, D. T. L., Crozier, P. A., and Anderson, J. R.: Brown carbon spheres in East Asian outflow and their optical properties, Science, 321, 833–835, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1155296, 2008. 
Download
Short summary
This paper presents the first direct atmospheric observations of the formation and evolution of tar balls (TBs) in forest fires collected during the Department of Energy’s Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP). We quantify, for the first time, the TB mass fraction in the BB plumes and show that this mass fraction increases from less than 1 % to 50 % within the first couple of hours of plume aging. Using Mie theory we find that TBs are consistent with being weak light absorbers.
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint