Optical properties and composition of viscous organic particles found in the Southern Great Plains

Fraund, Matthew; Bonanno, Daniel J.; China, Swarup; Pham, Don Q.; Veghte, Daniel; Weis, Johannes; Kulkarni, Gourihar; Teske, Ken; Gilles, Mary K.; Laskin, Alexander; Moffet, Ryan C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11593-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 19

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11593-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11593-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 19

Research article

|

12 Oct 2020

Research article |

| 12 Oct 2020

Optical properties and composition of viscous organic particles found in the Southern Great Plains

Matthew Fraund, Daniel J. Bonanno, Swarup China, Don Q. Pham, Daniel Veghte, Johannes Weis, Gourihar Kulkarni, Ken Teske, Mary K. Gilles, Alexander Laskin, and Ryan C. Moffet

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11593-2020-supplement

Data sets

SGP HISCALE STXM Images and Spectra Matthew Fraund https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/G8FPW

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Short summary

High viscosity organic particles (HVOPs) in the Southern Great Plains have been analyzed, and two particle types were found. Previously studied tar balls and the recently discovered airborne soil organic particles (ASOPs) are both shown to be brown carbon (BrC). These particle types can be identified in bulk by an absorption Ångström exponent approaching 2.6. HVOP types can be differentiated by comparing carbon absorption spectrum peak ratios between the carboxylic acid, alcohol, and sp² peaks.