Articles | Volume 25, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1917-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1917-2025
Measurement report
 | 
12 Feb 2025
Measurement report |  | 12 Feb 2025

Measurement report: Brown carbon aerosol in rural Germany – sources, chemistry, and diurnal variations

Feng Jiang, Harald Saathoff, Uzoamaka Ezenobi, Junwei Song, Hengheng Zhang, Linyu Gao, and Thomas Leisner

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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. 
Cabada, J. C., Pandis, S. N., Subramanian, R., Robinson, A. L., Polidori, A., and Turpin, B.: Estimating the secondary organic aerosol contribution to PM2.5 using the EC tracer method, Aerosol Sci. Tech., 38, 140–155, https://doi.org/10.1080/02786820390229084, 2004. 
Chen, Q. C., Chen, Q., Hua, X. Y., Guan, D. J., and Chang, T.: Gas-phase brown carbon: Absorbance and chromophore types, Atmos. Environ., 264, 118646, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2021.118646, 2021. 
Cheng, X., Chen, Q., Li, Y., Huang, G., Liu, Y., Lu, S., Zheng, Y., Qiu, W., Lu, K., Qiu, X., Bianchi, F., Yan, C., Yuan, B., Shao, M., Wang, Z., Canagaratna, M. R., Zhu, T., Wu, Y., and Zeng, L.: Secondary Production of Gaseous Nitrated Phenols in Polluted Urban Environments, Environ. Sci. Technol., 55, 4410–4419, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c07988, 2021. 
Daumit, K. E., Kessler, S. H., and Kroll, J. H.: Average chemical properties and potential formation pathways of highly oxidized organic aerosol, Faraday Discuss., 165, 181–202, https://doi.org/10.1039/c3fd00045a, 2013. 
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The chemical composition of brown carbon in the particle and gas phase was determined by mass spectrometry. BrC in the gas phase was mainly controlled by secondary formation and particle-to-gas partitioning. BrC in the particle phase was mainly from secondary formation. This work helps to get a better understanding of diurnal variations and the sources of brown carbon aerosol at a rural location in central Europe.
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