Articles | Volume 25, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2423-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2423-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
25 Feb 2025
Research article |
| 25 Feb 2025
| 25 Feb 2025
Characterization of atmospheric water-soluble brown carbon in the Athabasca oil sands region, Canada
School of the Environment, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J 7B8, Canada
Mark Gordon
Centre for Research in Earth and Space Science, York University, Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3, Canada
Duc Huy Dang
School of the Environment, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J 7B8, Canada
Department of Chemistry, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J 7B8, Canada
Paul Andrew Makar
Air Quality Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, Ontario, M3H 5T4, Canada
Julian Aherne
School of the Environment, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J 7B8, Canada
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7241–7255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7241-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7241-2023, 2023
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Measurements of the gas sulfur dioxide (SO2) were made in a forest downwind of oil sands mining and production facilities in northern Alberta. These measurements tell us the rate at which SO2 is absorbed by the forest. The measured rate is much higher than what is currently used by air quality models, which is supported by a previous study in this region. This suggests that SO2 may have a much shorter lifetime in the atmosphere at this location than currently predicted by models.
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Paul A. Makar, Philip Cheung, Christian Hogrefe, Ayodeji Akingunola, Ummugulsum Alyuz, Jesse O. Bash, Michael D. Bell, Roberto Bellasio, Roberto Bianconi, Tim Butler, Hazel Cathcart, Olivia E. Clifton, Alma Hodzic, Ioannis Kioutsioukis, Richard Kranenburg, Aurelia Lupascu, Jason A. Lynch, Kester Momoh, Juan L. Perez-Camanyo, Jonathan Pleim, Young-Hee Ryu, Roberto San Jose, Donna Schwede, Thomas Scheuschner, Mark W. Shephard, Ranjeet S. Sokhi, and Stefano Galmarini
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 2385–2405, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2385-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2385-2025, 2025
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Kerry Anderson, Jack Chen, Peter Englefield, Debora Griffin, Paul A. Makar, and Dan Thompson
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Debora Griffin, Jack Chen, Kerry Anderson, Paul Makar, Chris A. McLinden, Enrico Dammers, and Andre Fogal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10159–10186, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10159-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10159-2024, 2024
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Stefan J. Miller, Paul A. Makar, and Colin J. Lee
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Olivia E. Clifton, Donna Schwede, Christian Hogrefe, Jesse O. Bash, Sam Bland, Philip Cheung, Mhairi Coyle, Lisa Emberson, Johannes Flemming, Erick Fredj, Stefano Galmarini, Laurens Ganzeveld, Orestis Gazetas, Ignacio Goded, Christopher D. Holmes, László Horváth, Vincent Huijnen, Qian Li, Paul A. Makar, Ivan Mammarella, Giovanni Manca, J. William Munger, Juan L. Pérez-Camanyo, Jonathan Pleim, Limei Ran, Roberto San Jose, Sam J. Silva, Ralf Staebler, Shihan Sun, Amos P. K. Tai, Eran Tas, Timo Vesala, Tamás Weidinger, Zhiyong Wu, and Leiming Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9911–9961, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9911-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9911-2023, 2023
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Sepehr Fathi, Mark Gordon, and Yongsheng Chen
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 5069–5091, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5069-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-5069-2023, 2023
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We have combined various capabilities within a WRF model to generate simulations of atmospheric pollutant dispersion at 50 m resolution. The study objective was to resolve transport processes at the scale of measurements to assess and optimize aircraft-based emission rate retrievals. Model performance evaluation resulted in agreement within 5 % of observed meteorological and within 1–2 standard deviations of observed wind fields. Mass was conserved in the model within 5 % of input emissions.
Mark Gordon, Dane Blanchard, Timothy Jiang, Paul A. Makar, Ralf M. Staebler, Julian Aherne, Cris Mihele, and Xuanyi Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7241–7255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7241-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7241-2023, 2023
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Measurements of the gas sulfur dioxide (SO2) were made in a forest downwind of oil sands mining and production facilities in northern Alberta. These measurements tell us the rate at which SO2 is absorbed by the forest. The measured rate is much higher than what is currently used by air quality models, which is supported by a previous study in this region. This suggests that SO2 may have a much shorter lifetime in the atmosphere at this location than currently predicted by models.
Timothy Jiang, Mark Gordon, Paul A. Makar, Ralf M. Staebler, and Michael Wheeler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4361–4372, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4361-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4361-2023, 2023
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Measurements of submicron aerosols (particles smaller than 1 / 1000 of a millimeter) were made in a forest downwind of oil sands mining and production facilities in northern Alberta. These measurements tell us how quickly aerosols are absorbed by the forest (known as deposition rate) and how the deposition rate depends on the size of the aerosol. The measurements show good agreement with a parameterization developed from a recent study for deposition of aerosols to a similar pine forest.
Irene Cheng, Leiming Zhang, Zhuanshi He, Hazel Cathcart, Daniel Houle, Amanda Cole, Jian Feng, Jason O'Brien, Anne Marie Macdonald, Julian Aherne, and Jeffrey Brook
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14631–14656, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14631-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14631-2022, 2022
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Nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) deposition decreased significantly at 14 Canadian sites during 2000–2018. The greatest decline was observed in southeastern Canada owing to regional SO2 and NOx reductions. Wet deposition was more important than dry deposition, comprising 71–95 % of total N and 45–89 % of total S deposition. While critical loads (CLs) were exceeded at a few sites in the early 2000s, acidic deposition declined below CLs after 2012, which signifies recovery from legacy acidification.
Stefan J. Miller and Mark Gordon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6563–6584, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6563-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6563-2022, 2022
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This research investigates the measurement of atmospheric turbulence using a low-cost instrumented car that travels at near-highway speeds and is impacted by upwind obstructions and other on-road traffic. We show that our car design can successfully measure the mean flow and atmospheric turbulence near the surface. We outline a technique to isolate and remove the effects of sporadic passing traffic from car-measured velocity variances and discuss potential measurement uncertainties.
Mahtab Majdzadeh, Craig A. Stroud, Christopher Sioris, Paul A. Makar, Ayodeji Akingunola, Chris McLinden, Xiaoyi Zhao, Michael D. Moran, Ihab Abboud, and Jack Chen
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 219–249, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-219-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-219-2022, 2022
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Debora Griffin, Chris A. McLinden, Enrico Dammers, Cristen Adams, Chelsea E. Stockwell, Carsten Warneke, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Kyle J. Zarzana, Jake P. Rowe, Rainer Volkamer, Christoph Knote, Natalie Kille, Theodore K. Koenig, Christopher F. Lee, Drew Rollins, Pamela S. Rickly, Jack Chen, Lukas Fehr, Adam Bourassa, Doug Degenstein, Katherine Hayden, Cristian Mihele, Sumi N. Wren, John Liggio, Ayodeji Akingunola, and Paul Makar
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7929–7957, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7929-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7929-2021, 2021
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Satellite-derived NOx emissions from biomass burning are estimated with TROPOMI observations. Two common emission estimation methods are applied, and sensitivity tests with model output were performed to determine the accuracy of these methods. The effect of smoke aerosols on TROPOMI NO2 columns is estimated and compared to aircraft observations from four different aircraft campaigns measuring biomass burning plumes in 2018 and 2019 in North America.
Stefano Galmarini, Paul Makar, Olivia E. Clifton, Christian Hogrefe, Jesse O. Bash, Roberto Bellasio, Roberto Bianconi, Johannes Bieser, Tim Butler, Jason Ducker, Johannes Flemming, Alma Hodzic, Christopher D. Holmes, Ioannis Kioutsioukis, Richard Kranenburg, Aurelia Lupascu, Juan Luis Perez-Camanyo, Jonathan Pleim, Young-Hee Ryu, Roberto San Jose, Donna Schwede, Sam Silva, and Ralf Wolke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15663–15697, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15663-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15663-2021, 2021
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This technical note presents the research protocols for phase 4 of the Air Quality Model Evaluation International Initiative (AQMEII4). This initiative has three goals: (i) to define the state of wet and dry deposition in regional models, (ii) to evaluate how dry deposition influences air concentration and flux predictions, and (iii) to identify the causes for prediction differences. The evaluation compares LULC-specific dry deposition and effective conductances and fluxes.
Sepehr Fathi, Mark Gordon, Paul A. Makar, Ayodeji Akingunola, Andrea Darlington, John Liggio, Katherine Hayden, and Shao-Meng Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15461–15491, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15461-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15461-2021, 2021
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We have investigated the accuracy of aircraft-based mass balance methodologies through computer model simulations of the atmosphere and air quality at a regional high-resolution scale. We have defined new quantitative metrics to reduce emission retrieval uncertainty by evaluating top-down mass balance estimates against the known simulated meteorology and input emissions. We also recommend methodologies and flight strategies for improved retrievals in future aircraft-based studies.
Xinxin Ye, Pargoal Arab, Ravan Ahmadov, Eric James, Georg A. Grell, Bradley Pierce, Aditya Kumar, Paul Makar, Jack Chen, Didier Davignon, Greg R. Carmichael, Gonzalo Ferrada, Jeff McQueen, Jianping Huang, Rajesh Kumar, Louisa Emmons, Farren L. Herron-Thorpe, Mark Parrington, Richard Engelen, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Arlindo da Silva, Amber Soja, Emily Gargulinski, Elizabeth Wiggins, Johnathan W. Hair, Marta Fenn, Taylor Shingler, Shobha Kondragunta, Alexei Lyapustin, Yujie Wang, Brent Holben, David M. Giles, and Pablo E. Saide
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14427–14469, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14427-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14427-2021, 2021
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Wildfire smoke has crucial impacts on air quality, while uncertainties in the numerical forecasts remain significant. We present an evaluation of 12 real-time forecasting systems. Comparison of predicted smoke emissions suggests a large spread in magnitudes, with temporal patterns deviating from satellite detections. The performance for AOD and surface PM2.5 and their discrepancies highlighted the role of accurately represented spatiotemporal emission profiles in improving smoke forecasts.
Paul A. Makar, Craig Stroud, Ayodeji Akingunola, Junhua Zhang, Shuzhan Ren, Philip Cheung, and Qiong Zheng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12291–12316, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12291-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12291-2021, 2021
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Vehicle pollutant emissions occur in an environment where upward transport can be enhanced due to the turbulence created by the vehicles as they move through the atmosphere. An approach for including these turbulence effects in regional air pollution forecast models has been derived from theoretical, observation, and higher-resolution modeling. The enhanced mixing, which occurs in the immediate vicinity of roadways, changes pollutant concentrations on the regional to continental scale.
Zhiyong Wu, Leiming Zhang, John T. Walker, Paul A. Makar, Judith A. Perlinger, and Xuemei Wang
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 5093–5105, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5093-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5093-2021, 2021
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A community dry deposition algorithm for modeling the gaseous dry deposition process in chemistry transport models was extended to include an additional 12 oxidized volatile organic compounds and hydrogen cyanide based on their physicochemical properties and was then evaluated using field flux measurements over a mixed forest. This study provides a useful tool that is needed in chemistry transport models with increasing complexity for simulating an important atmospheric process.
Paul A. Makar, Ayodeji Akingunola, Jack Chen, Balbir Pabla, Wanmin Gong, Craig Stroud, Christopher Sioris, Kerry Anderson, Philip Cheung, Junhua Zhang, and Jason Milbrandt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10557–10587, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10557-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10557-2021, 2021
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We have examined the effects of airborne particles on absorption and scattering of incoming sunlight by the particles themselves via cloud formation. We used an advanced, combined high-resolution weather forecast and chemical transport computer model, for western North America, and simulations with and without the connections between particles and weather enabled. Feedbacks improved weather and air pollution forecasts and changed cloud behaviour and forest-fire pollutant amount and height.
Katherine Hayden, Shao-Meng Li, Paul Makar, John Liggio, Samar G. Moussa, Ayodeji Akingunola, Robert McLaren, Ralf M. Staebler, Andrea Darlington, Jason O'Brien, Junhua Zhang, Mengistu Wolde, and Leiming Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 8377–8392, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8377-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8377-2021, 2021
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We developed a method using aircraft measurements to determine lifetimes with respect to dry deposition for oxidized sulfur and nitrogen compounds over the boreal forest in Alberta, Canada. Atmospheric lifetimes were significantly shorter than derived from chemical transport models with differences related to modelled dry deposition velocities. The shorter lifetimes suggest models need to reassess dry deposition treatment and predictions of sulfur and nitrogen in the atmosphere and ecosystems.
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Short summary
This study offers the first known evaluation of water-soluble brown carbon aerosols in the Athabasca oil sands region (AOSR), Canada. Fluorescence spectroscopy analysis of aerosol samples from five regional sites (collected during the summer of 2021) identified oil sands operations as a measurable brown carbon source. Industrial aerosol emissions were unlikely to impact regional radiative forcing. These findings show that fluorescence spectroscopy can be used to monitor brown carbon in the AOSR.
This study offers the first known evaluation of water-soluble brown carbon aerosols in the...
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