A Chemical Climatology of Photochemical Oxidants Part B: Research and Training Program

目前对低层大气化学的了解表明，各种各样的生物和地质过程负责将气体从地球表面释放到大气中。这些排放对大气的化学成分有重大影响，因此对行星生命维持系统的整体质量有重大影响。排放到大气中的绝大多数痕量气体都处于化学还原的氧化状态。相比之下，通过降雨或干沉积从大气返回地表的物质被高度氧化。这些还原和氧化物种之间的联系是由大气光化学反应提供的。因此，建立了一个化学循环，通过该循环，还原气体以光化学氧化的方式排放到大气中，最终从大气中移除。该项目是亚特兰大大学中心(WUC)在快速发展的大气化学领域的研究/培训计划的启动。该计划将以“与光化学氧化剂相关的化学趋势和过程研究”为研究重点。在接下来的三年里，主要感兴趣的光化学物种将是O_3、H_2O_2(水相)和H_2O_2(气相)。到目前为止，文献中还没有系统的研究表明这三种关键的光化学氧化剂之间的日相关性或更长期的相关性。在短期内，这个新的数据库还应有助于阐明二氧化硫等对环境重要的物种的转化率，特别是与水相氧化过程有关的转化率。从长远来看，这一数据库在探索光化学氧化剂水平与对生物敏感植物群落的损害之间的相关关系方面也应被证明是非常有用的。该项目还将制定面向少数群体的培训/教育方案作为主要目标，这将大大促进进入化学领域的合格黑人科学家的数量。

Current understanding of the chemistry of the lower atmosphere indicates that a wide variety of biological and geological processes are responsible for the release of gaseous emissions from the earth's surface into the atmosphere. These emissions have a major impact on the chemical composition of the atmosphere and therefore, on the overall quality of the planetary life-support system. The vast majority of the trace gases emitted into the atmosphere are in chemically reduced oxidation states. By contrast, materials returned to the surface from the atmosphere, via rain or dry deposition, are highly oxidized. The link between these reduced and oxidized species is provided by atmospheric photochemical reactions. Thus, a chemical cycle is set up by which reduced gases are emitted into the atmosphere photochemically oxidized and finally removed from the atmosphere. This project is the initiation of a research/training program at Atlanta University Center (WUC) in the rapidly growing field of atmospheric chemistry. The program will have as its research focus, "A Study of Chemical Trends and Processes as Related to Photochemical Oxidants." During the next three years the photochemical species of primary interest will be O3, H2O2 (aqueous phase) and H2O2 (gas phase). To date there have been no systematic investigations reported in the literature showing diurnal or longer term correlations between these three key photochemical oxidants. In the short term, this new data base should also help elucidate the transformation rates of such environmentally important species as SO2, particularly as it relates to aqueous phase oxidation processes. In the long term this data base should also prove quite informative in efforts to explore correlative relationships between photochemical oxidant levels and damage to biologically sensitive plant communities. This project also has as a primary objective in the development of a minority oriented training/educational program that will contribute significantly to the number of qualified Black scientists entering the field of chemistry.