Atmospheric Science

Correlation of secondary organic aerosol with odd oxygen in Mexico City

  1. Scott C. Herndon1,
  2. Timothy B. Onasch1,
  3. Ezra C. Wood1,
  4. Jesse H. Kroll1,
  5. Manjula R. Canagaratna1,
  6. John T. Jayne1,
  7. Miguel A. Zavala2,3,
  8. W. Berk Knighton4,
  9. Claudio Mazzoleni5,
  10. Manvendra K. Dubey5,
  11. Ingrid M. Ulbrich6,
  12. Jose L. Jimenez6,
  13. Robert Seila7,
  14. Joost A. de Gouw8,
  15. Benjamin de Foy9,
  16. Jerome Fast10,
  17. Luisa T. Molina2,3,
  18. Charles E. Kolb1,
  19. Douglas R. Worsnop1

Article first published online: 5 AUG 2008

DOI: 10.1029/2008GL034058

Issue

Geophysical Research Letters

Geophysical Research Letters

Additional Information

How to Cite

Herndon, S. C., et al. (2008), Correlation of secondary organic aerosol with odd oxygen in Mexico City, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L15804, doi:10.1029/2008GL034058.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Aerodyne Research, Inc., Billerica, Massachusetts, USA

  2. 2

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

  3. 3

    Molina Center for Energy and the Environment, La Jolla, California, USA

  4. 4

    Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA

  5. 5

    Earth and Environmental Sciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA

  6. 6

    Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and CIRES, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  7. 7

    National Exposure Research Laboratory, Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA

  8. 8

    Earth System Research Laboratory, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  9. 9

    Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

  10. 10

    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, USA

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 5 AUG 2008
  2. Article first published online: 5 AUG 2008
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 20 JUN 2008
  4. Manuscript Revised: 7 MAY 2008
  5. Manuscript Received: 22 MAR 2008

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Keywords:

  • secondary organic aerosol;
  • photochemistry;
  • urban

[1] Photochemically processed urban emissions were characterized at a mountain top location, free from local sources, within the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. Analysis of the Mexico City emission plume demonstrates a strong correlation between secondary organic aerosol and odd oxygen (O3 + NO2). The measured oxygenated-organic aerosol correlates with odd oxygen measurements with an apparent slope of (104–180) μg m−3 ppmv−1 (STP) and r2 > 0.9. The dependence of the observed proportionality on the gas-phase hydrocarbon profile is discussed. The observationally-based correlation between oxygenated organic aerosol mass and odd oxygen may provide insight into poorly understood secondary organic aerosol production mechanisms by leveraging knowledge of gas-phase ozone production chemistry. These results suggest that global and regional models may be able to use the observed proportionality to estimate SOA as a co-product of modeled O3 production until more complete models of SOA formation become available.

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