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

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

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.