Articles | Volume 25, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2333-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2333-2025
Research article
 | 
21 Feb 2025
Research article |  | 21 Feb 2025

Burning conditions and transportation pathways determine biomass-burning aerosol properties in the Ascension Island marine boundary layer

Amie Dobracki, Ernie R. Lewis, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Tyler Tatro, Maria A. Zawadowicz, and Paquita Zuidema

Related authors

Atmospheric processing and aerosol aging responsible for observed increase in absorptivity of long-range transported smoke over the southeast Atlantic
Abdulamid A. Fakoya, Jens Redemann, Pablo E. Saide, Lan Gao, Logan T. Mitchell, Calvin Howes, Amie Dobracki, Ian Chang, Gonzalo A. Ferrada, Kristina Pistone, Samuel E. Leblanc, Michal Segal-Rozenhaimer, Arthur J. Sedlacek III, Thomas Eck, Brent Holben, Pawan Gupta, Elena Lind, Paquita Zuidema, Gregory Carmichael, and Connor J. Flynn
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3197,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3197, 2025
Short summary
Empirically derived parameterizations of the direct aerosol radiative effect based on ORACLES aircraft observations
Sabrina P. Cochrane, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Peter Pilewskie, Scott Kittelman, Jens Redemann, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Michal Segal Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, Connor Flynn, Amie Dobracki, Paquita Zuidema, Steven Howell, Steffen Freitag, and Sarah Doherty
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 567–593, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-567-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-567-2021, 2021
Short summary
Above-cloud aerosol radiative effects based on ORACLES 2016 and ORACLES 2017 aircraft experiments
Sabrina P. Cochrane, K. Sebastian Schmidt, Hong Chen, Peter Pilewskie, Scott Kittelman, Jens Redemann, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Meloë Kacenelenbogen, Michal Segal Rozenhaimer, Yohei Shinozuka, Connor Flynn, Steven Platnick, Kerry Meyer, Rich Ferrare, Sharon Burton, Chris Hostetler, Steven Howell, Steffen Freitag, Amie Dobracki, and Sarah Doherty
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 6505–6528, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6505-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-6505-2019, 2019
Short summary
Time-dependent entrainment of smoke presents an observational challenge for assessing aerosol–cloud interactions over the southeast Atlantic Ocean
Michael S. Diamond, Amie Dobracki, Steffen Freitag, Jennifer D. Small Griswold, Ashley Heikkila, Steven G. Howell, Mary E. Kacarab, James R. Podolske, Pablo E. Saide, and Robert Wood
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 14623–14636, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14623-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14623-2018, 2018
Short summary

Related subject area

Subject: Aerosols | Research Activity: Field Measurements | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Chemistry (chemical composition and reactions)
Marine organic aerosol at Mace Head: effects from phytoplankton and source region variability
Emmanuel Chevassus, Kirsten N. Fossum, Darius Ceburnis, Lu Lei, Chunshui Lin, Wei Xu, Colin O'Dowd, and Jurgita Ovadnevaite
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4107–4129, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4107-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4107-2025, 2025
Short summary
Measurement report: Sources and meteorology influencing highly time-resolved PM2.5 trace elements at three urban sites in the extremely polluted Indo-Gangetic Plain in India
Ashutosh K. Shukla, Sachchida N. Tripathi, Shamitaksha Talukdar, Vishnu Murari, Sreenivas Gaddamidi, Manousos-Ioannis Manousakas, Vipul Lalchandani, Kuldeep Dixit, Vinayak M. Ruge, Peeyush Khare, Mayank Kumar, Vikram Singh, Neeraj Rastogi, Suresh Tiwari, Atul K. Srivastava, Dilip Ganguly, Kaspar Rudolf Daellenbach, and André S. H. Prévôt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3765–3784, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3765-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3765-2025, 2025
Short summary
Formation of highly absorptive secondary brown carbon through nighttime multiphase chemistry of biomass burning emissions
Ye Kuang, Biao Luo, Shan Huang, Junwen Liu, Weiwei Hu, Yuwen Peng, Duohong Chen, Dingli Yue, Wanyun Xu, Bin Yuan, and Min Shao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3737–3752, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3737-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3737-2025, 2025
Short summary
Measurement report: Vertically resolved atmospheric properties observed over the Southern Great Plains with the ArcticShark uncrewed aerial system
Fan Mei, Qi Zhang, Damao Zhang, Jerome D. Fast, Gourihar Kulkarni, Mikhail S. Pekour, Christopher R. Niedek, Susanne Glienke, Israel Silber, Beat Schmid, Jason M. Tomlinson, Hardeep S. Mehta, Xena Mansoura, Zezhen Cheng, Gregory W. Vandergrift, Nurun Nahar Lata, Swarup China, and Zihua Zhu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3425–3444, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3425-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3425-2025, 2025
Short summary
Non-biogenic sources are an important but overlooked contributor to aerosol isoprene-derived organosulfates during winter in northern China
Ting Yang, Yu Xu, Yu-Chen Wang, Yi-Jia Ma, Hong-Wei Xiao, Hao Xiao, and Hua-Yun Xiao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2967–2978, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2967-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2967-2025, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Abel, S. J., Barrett, P. A., Zuidema, P., Zhang, J., Christensen, M., Peers, F., Taylor, J. W., Crawford, I., Bower, K. N., and Flynn, M.: Open cells exhibit weaker entrainment of free-tropospheric biomass burning aerosol into the south-east Atlantic boundary layer, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4059–4084, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4059-2020, 2020. 
Adebiyi, A. A., Zuidema, P., and Abel, S. J.: The Convolution of Dynamics and Moisture with the Presence of Shortwave Absorbing Aerosols over the Southeast Atlantic, J. Clim., 28, 1997–2024, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00352.1, 2015. 
Adebiyi, A. A. and Zuidema, P.: Low Cloud Cover Sensitivity to Biomass-Burning Aerosols and Meteorology over the Southeast Atlantic, J. Clim., 31, 4329–4346, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-0406.1, 2018. 
Aiken, A. C., DeCarlo, P. F., Kroll, J. H., Worsnop, D. R., Huffman, J. A., Docherty, K. S., Ulbrich, I. M., Mohr, C., Kimmel, J. R., and Sueper, D.: O/C and OM/OC ratios of primary, secondary, and ambient organic aerosols with high-resolution time-of-flight aerosol mass spectrometry, Environ. Sci. Technol., 42, 4478–4485, 2008. 
Akagi, S. K., Yokelson, R. J., Wiedinmyer, C., Alvarado, M. J., Reid, J. S., Karl, T., Crounse, J. D., and Wennberg, P. O.: Emission factors for open and domestic biomass burning for use in atmospheric models, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 4039–4072, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-4039-2011, 2011. 
Download
Short summary
Biomass-burning aerosol is commonly present in the marine boundary layer over the southeast Atlantic Ocean between June and October. Our research indicates that burning conditions, aerosol transport pathways, and prolonged oxidation processes (heterogeneous and aqueous phases) determine the chemical, microphysical, and optical properties of the boundary layer aerosol. Notably, we find that the aerosol optical properties can be estimated from the chemical properties alone.

Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint