Identification

Title

PTR-MS observations of photo-enhanced VOC release from Arctic and midlatitude snow

Abstract

To evaluate the release mechanism of volatile organic species (VOCs) from solar illuminated snowpacks, this study used proton transfer reaction-mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) for the first time to study VOCs within Arctic snow and to compare these results to VOC release from illuminated snow in the laboratory. The field measurements were conducted in April during the 2009 Ocean--Atmosphere--Sea Ice--Snowpack (OASIS) campaign in Barrow, Alaska, whereas in the laboratory four natural snow samples, from the Arctic (Alert, Nunavut), a rural site (Egbert, Ontario), and an urban area (Toronto, Ontario), were exposed to a Xe arc lamp with a 295 nm longpass filter. Similar VOCs were observed in both the field and laboratory experiments suggesting that these light-driven processes occur not only in polar regions but in midlatitude snows as well. Also, because the laboratory samples were temperature controlled, we conclude that the release mechanism is primarily photochemical and not temperature mediated. The snow composition may have influenced VOC production because aged Toronto snow samples, with both the highest total organic carbon content and concentration of oxidant precursors (i.e., NO₃-), exhibited the largest production of VOCs upon irradiation.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7pv6m0p

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2012-03-31T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact