Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

Science Rendezvous > Posters
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Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy Laboratory (ATMOSpeclab)

Sean Coburn (1), Barbara Dix (1), Andrew Hadd (1), Roman Sinreich (1), Ryan Thalman (1), Eleanor Waxman (1) and Rainer Volkamer (1)

(1) Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The ATMOSpeclab was established in 2007 to build optical spectroscopic instrumentation to measure reactive gases in the atmosphere. This poster gives an overview about ongoing research projects. These projects focus on (1) understanding the role of halogenoxides in the oxidation of atmospheric mercury, (2) developing the use of Light Emitting Diodes (LED) coupled to high-finesse optical cavities to perform Cavity Enhanced Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (LED-CE-DOAS), (3) conducting laboratory measurements on the aqueous phase reactivity of glyoxal to form secondary organic aerosol (SOA), (4) developing Multi Axis DOAS (MAX-DOAS) from mobile platforms like ships and research aircraft.

Results are presented from various of these projects. For example, a one-of-a-kind Ship Multi AXis DOAS (CU SMAX-DOAS) instrument was deployed from October 2008 to January 2009 on board NOAA’s RV Ronald H. Brown over the Eastern Pacific Ocean to directly probe the column abundance of glyoxal (CHOCHO), iodine oxide (IO), iodine (I2), iodine dioxide (OIO), bromine oxide (BrO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrous acid (HONO), formaldehyde (HCHO), sulfur dioxide (SO2), water vapor (H2O) and oxygen dimers (O4, an indicator for aerosol optical depth) as part of the VOCALS-REx and TAO field campaigns. We find CHOCHO is enhanced more than 3000km from the West Coast of South America, and conclude that such CHOCHO can not be explained by continental outflow of CHOCHO or precursor hydrocarbons emitted over land. These measurements indicate some novel chemistry is active over large parts of the open ocean, that is not currently represented in atmospheric models.