ACPD Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ACPD 1680-7375 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acpd-10-17435-2010 Measurement of the ambient organic aerosol volatility distribution: application during the Finokalia Aerosol Measurement Experiment (FAME-2008) Lee B. H. 1 Kostenidou E. 2 3 Hildebrandt L. 1 Riipinen I. 1 4 Engelhart G. J. 1 Mohr C. 5 DeCarlo P. F. 5 Mihalopoulos N. 6 Prevot A. S. H. 5 Baltensperger U. 5 Pandis S. N. 1 2 3 Department of Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Patras, Patra, Greece Inst. of Chemical Eng. and High Temperature Chemical Processes, ICE-HT, Patra, Greece Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Paul Scherrer Institute, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry, 5232 Villigen, Switzerland University of Crete, Department of Chemistry, Heraklion, Greece 20 07 2010 10 7 17435 17466 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/17435/2010/acpd-10-17435-2010.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/10/17435/2010/acpd-10-17435-2010.pdf

A variable residence time thermodenuder (TD) was combined with an Aerodyne Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) and a Scanning Mobility Particle Sizer (SMPS) to measure the volatility distribution of aged organic aerosol in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Finokalia Aerosol Measurement Experiment in May of 2008 (FAME-2008). A new method for the quantification of the organic aerosol volatility distribution was developed combining measurements of all three instruments together with an aerosol dynamics model. <br><br> Challenges in the interpretation of ambient thermodenuder-AMS measurements include the potential resistances to mass transfer during particle evaporation, the effects of particle size on the evaporated mass fraction, the changes in the AMS collection efficiency and particle density as the particles evaporate partially in the TD, and finally potential losses inside the TD. Our proposed measurement and data analysis method accounts for all of these problems combining the AMS and SMPS measurements. <br><br> The AMS collection efficiency of the aerosol that passed through the TD was found to be approximately 10% lower than the collection efficiency of the aerosol that passed through the bypass. The organic aerosol measured at Finokalia is approximately 2 orders of magnitude less volatile than fresh laboratory-generated biogenic secondary organic aerosol. This low volatility is consistent with its highly oxygenated AMS mass spectrum. The results are found to be highly sensitive to the mass accommodation coefficient of the evaporating species.

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