Study of water-soluble atmospheric humic matter in urban and marine environments
Krivacsy, Z.; Kiss, G.; Ceburnis, D.; Jennings, G.; Maenhaut, W.; Salma, I.; Shooter, D. (2008). Study of water-soluble atmospheric humic matter in urban and marine environments. Atmos. Res. 87(1): 1-12. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2007.04.005 In: Atmospheric Research. Elsevier: Tokyo; Oxford; New York; Amsterdam. ISSN 0169-8095; e-ISSN 1873-2895, more |  |
| Keywords | Marine/Coastal; Terrestrial | | Author keywords | humic-like substances (HULIS); atmospheric concentration; fluorescence;UV-VIS absorption; molecular weight; water-solubility; sources; samplingartefact |
| Authors | | Top | - Krivacsy, Z.
- Kiss, G.
- Ceburnis, D.
- Jennings, G.
| - Maenhaut, W., more
- Salma, I.
- Shooter, D.
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| Abstract | Recently, atmospheric humic matter or humic-like substances (HULIS) have been found in the water-soluble fraction of atmospheric aerosol sampled at different locations. Most of these locations were continental, non-urban sites. Therefore, in this work HULIS was studied in urban and marine environments. The atmospheric concentration varied over a wide range from 0.40 to 5.44 µg m- 3, from the clean marine air (Mace Head, Ireland) to the heavily polluted winter urban atmosphere (Christchurch, New Zealand). In terms of carbon, ratio of HULIS was 19–51% of water-soluble organic carbon, and 10–22% of total carbon. Different spectroscopic techniques were applied for the physico-chemical characterisation of HULIS including relative aromaticity and molecular weight. Specific absorbance was observed to be much less variable than specific fluorescence, and consequently UV-VIS spectroscopy at ? > 330 nm was recommended for rapid, semi-quantitative determination of HULIS in the water extracts of atmospheric aerosol. Application of a dual filter sampling system at one of the sampling sites has revealed a significant positive sampling artefact which calls for further systematic studies on this subject, and also supports the idea of a secondary organic aerosol formation mechanism of HULIS. |
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