Regensburg 2016 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 4: Poster Session

UP 4.12: Poster

Dienstag, 8. März 2016, 16:00–17:30, Foyer H41

Investigating the sources of VOC using the ratio of glyoxal to formaldehyde from satellite and ground based measurements — •Leonardo Alvarado, Andreas Richter, Folkard Wittrock, Mihalis Vrekoussis, and John Burrows — Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

Glyoxal (CHOCHO) and formaldehyde (HCHO) can be used as tracers of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in the atmosphere, because they are intermediate products in the oxidation of most VOC. CHOCHO and HCHO are mainly emitted from natural and anthropogenic sources as well as during fire events. Despite that the sources and chemistry are similar in many respects, the variation in production efficiency for different sources can be used to better constrain source attribution of VOC.

In this study, CHOCHO and HCHO vertical columns retrieved from satellite measurements, are used for the identification of VOC emission sources by computing the ratio of glyoxal to formaldehyde and correlating it with indicators of biogenic emissions (enhanced vegetation index, EVI), fires (fire radiative power, FRP), and anthropogenic activities (nitrogen dioxide: NO2) in order to assess ratio as indicator of VOC specification sources. Additionally, this result is compared with ratios obtained from ground-based measurement over Athens and Nairobi.