Detection of tar brown carbon with a single  particle soot photometer (SP2)

Corbin, Joel C.; Gysel-Beer, Martin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15673-2019

Articles | Volume 19, issue 24

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15673-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-15673-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 24

Research article

|

20 Dec 2019

Research article |

| 20 Dec 2019

Detection of tar brown carbon with a single particle soot photometer (SP2)

Joel C. Corbin and Martin Gysel-Beer

Data sets

Figure data for “Detection of tarbrown carbon with the single particle soot photometer (SP2)” J. C. Corbin and M. Gysel-Beer https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3583391

Short summary

We review the literature to refine the definition of "tar balls" (or tar particles). Then, using a marine-engine data set, we show that a standard SP2 can identify tar particles in two ways, as evaporating and non-incandescing (30 % of tar particles by number) or incandescing particles which scatter more light than soot at incandescence (70 % of tar particles by number). To our knowledge, no other technique can provide in situ, real-time evidence for the presence of tar particles in an aerosol.