AGS-PRF: Atmospheric Lifecycle of Organic Carbon Through Multiple Generations of Aging

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This is a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with the objective of characterizing the chemical properties of gas- and particle-phase carbon in the atmosphere. Laboratory experiments will be conducted in an environmental chamber to observe the formation of secondary organic aerosol and the aging of organic compounds over several days. The results will lead to a better understanding of the atmospheric carbon cycle essential for developing policies that mitigate the effects of organic carbon on air quality and climate.The experiments will take place in a reaction chamber at MIT using a Total Gas-phase Organics (TGO) instrument, an Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS), a Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometer (CIMS), and other instrumentation to provide detailed compositional data about specific classes of compounds and their oxidation products. Up to three days of atmospheric aging will be simulated in the reaction chamber through the atmospheric oxidation of precursors using the photolytic formation of hydroxyl radical from a steady stream of nitrous acid. Several reduced parameter chemical representations will be developed to describe the chemical properties and chemical transformations of organic aerosol and to model its oxidation pathways in the atmosphere. The experiments will help to constrain the budget of total carbon in the atmosphere.