Mulitphase Atmospheric Chemistry in Liquid Water: Impacts and Controllability of Organic Aerosol

CONSPECTUS: Liquid water is a dominant and critical tropospheric constituent. Over polluted land masses low level cumulus clouds interact with boundary layer aerosol. The planetary boundary layer (PBL) is the lowest atmospheric layer and is directly influenced by Earth's surface. Water-aerosol interactions are critical to processes that govern the fate and transport of trace species in the Earth system and their impacts on air quality, radiative forcing, and regional hydrological cycling. In the PBL, air parcels rise adiabatically from the surface, and anthropogenically influenced hygroscopic aerosols take up water and serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) to form clouds. Water-soluble gases partition to liquid water in wet aerosols and cloud droplets and undergo aqueous-phase photochemistry. Most cloud droplets evaporate, and low volatility material formed during aqueous phase chemistry remains in the condensed phase and adds to aerosol mass. The resulting cloud-processed aerosol has different physicochemical properties compared to the original CCN. Organic species that undergo multiphase chemistry in atmospheric liquid water transform gases to highly concentrated, nonideal ionic aqueous solutions and form secondary organic aerosol (SOA). In recent years, SOA formation modulated by atmospheric waters has received considerable interest. Key uncertainties are related to the chemical nature of hygroscopic aerosols that become CCN and their interaction with organic species. Gas-to-droplet or gas-to-aqueous aerosol partitioning of organic compounds is affected by the intrinsic chemical properties of the organic species in addition to the pre-existing condensed phase. Environmentally relevant conditions for atmospheric aerosol are nonideal. Salt identity and concentration, in addition to aerosol phase state, can dramatically affect organic gas miscibility for many compounds, in particular when ionic strength and salt molality are outside the bounds of limiting laws. For example, Henry's law and Debye-Huckel theory are valid only for dilute aqueous systems uncharacteristic of real atmospheric conditions. Chemical theory is incomplete, and at ambient conditions, this chemistry plays a determining role in total aerosol mass and particle size, controlling factors for air quality and climate-relevant aerosol properties. Accurate predictive skill to understand the impacts of societal choices and policies on air quality and climate requires that models contain correct chemical mechanisms and appropriate feedbacks. Globally, SOA is a dominant contributor to the atmospheric organic aerosol burden, and most mass can be traced back to precursor gas-phase volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from the biosphere. However, organic aerosol concentrations in the Amazon Rainforest, the largest emitter of biogenic VOCs, are generally lower than in U.S. national parks. The Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) air quality network, with sites located predominantly in national parks, provides the longest continuous record of organic aerosol measurements in the U.S. Analysis of IMPROVE data provides a useful chemical climatology of changing air resources in response to environmental rules and shifting economic trends. IMPROVE data provides an excellent test bed for case studies to assess model skill to accurately predict changes in organic aerosol concentrations in the context of a changing climate.